On Windows 7, I think IE8 is installed. If it remains installed when you run Windows Update, it'll let you download a newer version of it. If IE isn't installed at the time though, it won't show the update. Simplix Update Pack also has a /IE11 switch for installing IE11, but by default it isn't installed. I don't use IE for browsing. Is it a good idea to update it anyway? Or should I keep it at whatever version it comes as? Does updating IE cause any issues or give any kind of benefit if I don't plan on using it directly for browsing? From my understanding, certain programs can use core IE files (Xfire used to do this a few years ago). Updating IE did affect Xfire if I recall right, even after removing IE later.
IE is not just a browse, it represent Windows Internet Platform Components that are required by system itself as for updating to IE11, it's recommended i guess scripting engine is updated with it
I seldom use Internet Explorer and then only when a specific website requires it to function properly. There are some that aren't fully Firefox friendly. The problem I had with IE11 was it truncated Outlook 2003 emails. Had something to do with the default email editor. If I used Word 2003 as the editor, no message truncating. But that made Outlook a bit clunky. So on my business machine that uses Office 2003 quite happily, I reverted to IE10. On those machines that use Office 2010, or some other suite, I upgraded to IE11 without problem. I actually think upgrading to IE11 is a good idea based on exactly what abbodi1406 says. IE is an integral part of the OS.