In a move to ensure that the users of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser do not leave themselves vulnerable to security attacks, Microsoft is urging the users of IE6 – almost 20 percent of the Internet users still use IE6 - to upgrade to a newer IE version.

Noting that the nine-year-old IE6 browser lacks the ability to “sufficiently protect users from the latest security threats,” Microsoft last-month launched a campaign urging IE6 users switch over to an upgraded browser. So adamant is Microsoft about the switch over by the users that it is also recommending that they upgrade to any of the rival browsers – Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple Safari.

However, even though a number of newer Web browsers are freely available, IE6 users appear to be somewhat reluctant to go in for an upgrade, the reason – as Micorsoft’s chief security adviser Stuart Strathdee has pointed out – being that most of them are “happy with IE6 and they are thinking along the lines of the old saying, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it’.”

Adding that IE6 was the right tool for a certain time and, with the threats have changed, users need to update to IE8, Strathdee said that some users feel that the upgrade to a newer browser will be complicated process, while other feel that they may lose their settings, which is not the case as they can choose to keep their settings intact.