Is it safe to Uninstall Internet Explorer?

[Angel Tarragon]

My system just recovered from an IP error. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I'm guessing IE is partly to blame. I'm currently using Avant.

Would it be okay for me to Uninstall IE?

 

[Arnwyn]

I'm not a technology expert, so somebody might contradict me...

But when I inquired about this some years ago, the answer was pretty much "no, it's definitely not all right". For XP, at least, IE is integrated right in the operating system and is necessary for its functioning.

(If I was steered wrong, though, I'd love to know how to quickly, safely, and easily uninstall IE...)

 

[drothgery]

It's not actually possible to uninstall IE in Win98 or later (and it's a very, very bad idea to try and use any tool that purports to do this).

Uninstalling IE from add/remove programs will usually roll it back to the version that came with your OS, except if you installed IE7, and then XP service pack 3 (in which case you can't uninstall IE7) or a few much less common similar situations.

 

[Thanee]

Exactly. IE is a part of Windows, that is not only used for internet browsing.

It's probably better to keep it up to date (and not use it for internet browsing ).

Bye
Thanee

 

[The_Warlock]

Rev,

What they said is generally correct, you can't remove IE from Windows.

However, you CAN lock it down so that it's not as much of a security risk. It utterly hobbles IE, but if you use a 3rd-party browser, that's fine.

My suggestion:

Go to Control Panel, Internet Options - these setting are essentially all the allowed options for IE under Windows, they won't affect any third-party browser you are using..

General Tab:
Set Home page to blank with "Use Blank" button.
Temporary Internet Files: Setting Button -> Set Amount of Disk Space to 1 MB.

Security Tab:
Select each Zone separately, click the custom button, and set every option except Use Pop-up blocker to Disabled or Requires User Name and Password.

Privacy Tab:
Block All Cookies (Slider to top)
Check the Pop-up blocker.
Pop-up clocker Settings button, make sure no sites are allowed through, and set Filter Level to High.

Hit Ok.

Even if you have a program that refuses to open links in your 3rd party browser and forces the opening in IE, you should be protected from most standard infection vectors.

Hope that helps.

 

[The_Warlock]

My system just recovered from an IP error.

Do you recall the specific error message? Generally an IP error means that another machine on the same network has been assigned the same IP address, and there is a communications conflict because of it, or there's a general network protocol settings issue.

If your computer isn't on an internal LAN with other computers, an IP error is usually more an error of Network card settings or local hardware router/firewall, or high speed modem settings.

 

[XCorvis]

Avant is actually a shell that runs over IE's rendering engine, so even if you could remove IE, it would break Avant. It adds a bunch of stuff to make it more sane, but honestly, I don't see a lot of info about it being "more secure." If you're worried about security, try Firefox. Unfortunately, you'll still have to go back to IE/Avant occasionally to deal with ActiveX and IE-only websites.

IE 7 has a "reset" feature under Tools->Internet Options->Advanced, so you might try that if you keep having problems with it.

If you can give some more info about the error, we can help diagnose it. It might not really be related to your browsers.

 

[The_Warlock]

Ah, I don't use Avant, and it's not something I've tested for my company, I had no idea it required the IE Shell.

Eww.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Hmm, maybe its time to switch to a new browser that doesn't use IE as a shell.

 

[Thanee]

Bye
Thanee

These are made for a white background, so look a little funky on the dark background here...