Wow! That's surprising even for them - it's pretty hard to believe even given other things I've seen them do. Since it's free anyway, I don't understand what the big deal is about getting people to convert. I guess it's a good thing I'm already using it (and I'm quite happy with it as well).

I wonder if something happened out there with IE7 and/or IE8 that they MUST fix but is difficult to fix and is resolved in IE9 (maybe another legal issue instead of or in addition to a technical issue) and they're trying to convert everyone rather than fix the other problem(s)? Maybe there's a problem with the OS's (possibly even a security problem) where the fix hoses all versions of IE but IE9 and they want/need to get the fixes out but can't until they can convert enough that they can do it and tell people still using older versions who have whatever problem results that the fix is to upgrade to IE9 (but there are too many using earlier versions now to do something that radical)?

Then again, maybe the OP was wrong about that upgrade (one would expect a massive wave of posts if that actually happened intentionally and to everyone) and maybe the download you were receiving was something else entirely (maybe not even from Microsoft). For now, I have doubts unless/until we see a wave of people with similar problems who are complaining about being tricked or coerced into installing IE9. It's disturbing, but there aren't enough cases complaining to convince me it's an intentional policy that's meant to be affecting everyone without their consent. But it's something to be wary about and alert for that wave if it starts.