Is there a reason to upgrade Internet Explorer on Windows Server?

I never use Internet Explorer on my Windows Servers. Is there any reason I should upgrade Internet Explorer (version 6 or 7 to 7 or 8)?

From serverfault splattne

• Definitely. If you have it installed, I'd rather run a more the most up-to-date version regarding security. Featurewise it's a moot point, but I'd rather not have admins browsing around in IE6 on my servers.

  Optimally noone uses IE on servers, but we sh** happens.

  David Schmitt : +1: IE6 must die :)

  splattne : @David Schmitt: http://www.saveie6.com/ ;-)

  squillman : I'm going to buy saveie6.com off that guy and put up a redirect to getfirefox.com
  From Mark S. Rasmussen

• Keep in mind that while you may not directly use IE, the IE rendering engine or other components may be used by other applications you may run.

  I think it should kept it up to date.

  From Zoredache

• Someone else (person or application) might use it, now or in the future - so keep the patch level of all installed applications as recent as possible at all times.

  From Oskar Duveborn

• Most systems need IE for Windows updates, so yes, keep it up to date.

  phuzion : Not if you have WSUS.

  Leigh Riffel : +1 Indeed, that is a valid exception.
  From Leigh Riffel

• The main benefit I see would be security.

  That alone is worth upgrading and the other reasons mentioned: other apps may use it, other individuals may use it, and for testing are defiantly worth considering.

  However, the best bet might be to wait a couple weeks so the initial bugs get ironed out then do the upgrade.

  There always seems to be one big security flaw in new IE releases.

  From Berek Bryan

• Like many things in this world, it depends:

  If you have web based applications in your shop that you might have to access from one of these servers (*) and that app doesn't work with IE7 or IE8, then no. Otherwise, I don't see anything wrong with updating the version of IE as part of your regular upgrade cycle , but I wouldn't bother rushing it.

  (*) In general, you shouldn't have to use a browser on a server to access any web application. That's what workstations are for; and again, if you or your users depend on IE6, then no, don't upgrade it. Setup a test box in IE7/IE8 and audit your web applications.

  From CodeSlave

• Even if you don't upgrade, i don't think it will be a problem: thanks to the uber-protective securty policy applied to internet explorer by default, IE6 is already crippled to a state that renders it useless

  btw, ie6 it is like a bug compilation, i would strongly suggest to upgrade

  From Magnetic_dud

• Until such time as we get a server version without IE it needs to be updated. IE has always had more than its fair share of vulnerabilities and your server needs to be protected.

  From John Gardeniers

• Oddly, not upgrading IE protected me from the nimda virus.

  I used to run a SCM server that used NT 4.0, which comes with IE 2, and I had never upgraded. Despite the fact I had the server configured to only allow connections from internal IP address, nimda had infected our exchange server so it still managed to get on to my server using the ..\.. alt encoding trick. However, nimda failed to infect my server because it used a fnc in WININET that wasn't in the IE 2.0 WININET. My IIS logs were full of these failed attempts. It took quite some time to figure out why my server didn't actually have a nimda infection.

  Had I upgraded to IE3, my server would have been infected as well. (I'd prefer not to have IE installed at all).

  From Tony Lee

• I upgrade IE selectively. If the server runs or is managed by a web app I absolutely will not upgrade until I am certain the app supports it. Otherwise if the thing should never be used or launched I will upgrade right away. I have had web admin tools broken by IE upgrades and had to downgrade before I could resolve issues.

  From Laura Thomas