Microsoft is big on the old upgrades this month. Last week it announced the official launch of its new email service Outlook.com to replace Hotmail, and now today its rolled out an update to Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 users.

The upgrade will be rolled out first to users that have installed the IE10 preview via Windows Update, while those who are still running IE9 will get the update in the “weeks ahead” says Microsoft, without giving a concrete timetable for the update.

Microsoft bosses have high hopes for the success of IE10 as it attempts to win back users that have switched over to rivals like Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox. Internet Explorer remains the most popular browser in the world, commanding a 55% market share according to research firm NetMarketShare, but it has steadily been losing ground over the last few years. Currently, Firefox stands in second place with a 20% market share, followed by Chrome on 17%.

Admittedly most of those who have switched to Firefox and Chrome will take a lot of convincing to switch back again, but IE10 does offer some big improvements that might give one or two a reason to consider doing so. According to Microsoft, IE10 is now 20% faster at downloading sites than its IE9 predecessor, while the biggest advantage for some will be that it supports touch-screen commands that Chrome and Firefox both lack. Reviews of the browser on Windows 8 have generally been positive, with many hailing it as the best incarnation of Internet Explorer so far, although few have gone as far as claiming that it’s any ‘better’ than Chrome or Firefox.

But the hope is that many consumers will decide that it is, for as well as landing a blow in the browser wars, Microsoft must secretly be praying that IE10 can convince more users to consider buying its Surface tablet rather than an iPad, which isn’t able to run the browser.

One additional feature that may appeal to users concerned about privacy is IE10’s “Do Not Track” setting, which has been set ‘on’ by default, unlike Google’s Chrome browser. At the time Microsoft announced this, internet advertisers raised quite a ruckus, complaining bitterly about all the data they’d be missing out on – while Yahoo was so infuriated that it publicly stated that it would ignore the signal and continue to track users.

Microsoft’s decision has also led to standoff with the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsible for setting a DNT standard. Some members of the WC3 want all browsers DNT settings to be switched on by default, but Microsoft’s unilateral decision to ignore this has left the body deadlocked. Until now, the issue wasn’t such a big problem as the vast majority of users were running IE9 anyway, but now that IE10 is set to be rolled out automatically in the coming weeks we can expect to see opposition to Microsoft’s decision intensifying as an additional 700 million PCs all start sending out DNT signals.

Those who want to update to IE10 immediately can do so by downloading the browser manually from Microsoft’s website. Alternatively, those who wish to avoid the upgrade can do so too, by deploying the blocking toolkit issued by Microsoft earlier this month, or by cancelling the update in Windows Server Update Services.