Does no one see that since I don't use IE I see absolutely no point. Even with IE6 as an integral part of the OS whilst Security Updates continue to be released for IE6 then I will stick with it. Otherwise when they stop security updates (which will probably coincide with stopping XP Pro support as IE6 is linked to this version of IE), then and only then will I make the decision on what to do. Who knows what will be around when that happens.
As and when IE8 comes out of beta (and probably before) I'm sure it will work with windows update, which happens to be another part of MS that I don't use since they started adding stuff that wasn't security related. I get notification of what updates that have been released, check secunia, etc. to see what is applicable to my system then download them manually and install off-line.