Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) share of the global browser market slipped 0.92% in September, and declined 7.5 percentage points since the same time last year.
Latest data from Net Applications shows that 22.1% of all Windows 7 devices were running Microsoft’s latest IE9 browser. The other top browsers running on Windows 7 machines were IE8 (31.6%), Firefox 6 (13.7%), Chrome 13 (13.1%) and Chrome 14 (5.9%).
"Microsoft has been pushing IE9 and Windows 7 as the best browsing experience on Windows 7 because of IE9’s use of hardware acceleration and its integration with the Windows 7 user interface," said Net Applications.
The news of declining popularity of IE comes a few days after a temorary glitch in Microsoft’s program’s virus definition update blocked Google’s Chrome.
Microsoft said on its website that the bug has been identified and corrected, but nearly 3000 users had been affected by the error.
"On September 30th, 2011, an incorrect detection for PWS: Win32/Zbot was identified and, as a result, Google Chrome was inadvertently blocked and in some cases removed from customers PCs," Microsoft said.
The company has asked afected users to manually update Microsoft Security Essentials with the latest signatures.
Microsoft said, "Within a few hours, Microsoft released an update that addresses the issue. Signature versions 1.113.672.0 and higher include this update. Affected customers should manually update Microsoft Security Essentials with the latest signatures. After updating the definitions, reinstall Google Chrome. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused our customers."
Google has responded with an automatic update to fix the Chrome browser.
The company said on Friday, "we are releasing an update that will automatically repair Chrome for affected users over the course of the next 24 hours."
Google engineering manager Mark Larson added, "In the meantime, if you want to fix the problem with Microsoft Security Essentials and restore Chrome manually, please follow the instructions below."
"If Chrome is working correctly for you, then there’s no need to take any action."
