Microsoft has announced that Internet Explorer 7 will no longer be restricted to only those installations of Windows XP that pass Windows Genuine Advantage validation. I’m glad to see Microsoft make the right decision here. IE7 is, among other things, much more secure than IE6. Forcing millions of computers to languish with insecure browsers punished all Internet users by making it easier for those computers to be hijacked and used to distribute viruses, send spam, or otherwise make life miserable for all of us.