There was some confusing info flowing out of several tech websites yesterday about what exactly IE9 needed as minimum operating system requirements. Initially reports showed that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was the minimum system IE9 could be installed on once it is released.
After several sites reported this other sites came out and reported that was not the case and it would install on Windows 7 without any service packs.
So which is right?
Well I contacted a Microsoft representative on Twitter and ask that very question. What he told me was that Windows 7 SP1 is not on the system requirements listing at all and they sent me a link to this Knowledge Base Article that spells out those basic system requirements for IE9.
Here are just the OS requirements:
Internet Explorer 9 has a minimum requirement for the following Operating Systems:
- Windows Vista (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 2 (SP 2) or later versions
- Windows 7 (x86 and x64) or later versions
- Windows Server 2008 (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 2 (SP 2) or later versions
- Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 or later versions
If you are running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 less than Service Pack 2, install the latest Service Pack.
As you can see Windows 7 SP1 is clearly not there but as we previously wrote about – no operating systems older than Windows Vista with SP2 is supported.
Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion out there.