Uninstalling internet explorer

Eliza_2

I want to uninstall IE7 from my old pc which runs XP. In 'add/remove programs' IE doesn't have a remove button. I read that I need to remove service Pack 3 and a remove button will appear. I duly removed SP3 and a remove option did indeed appear. My pc went through all of the processes to remove IE and restarted. I noticed however that the icon was still in my task-bar. Just checking, I clicked on it and IE promptly opened so has obviously not uninstalled!! However it doesn't appear in the add/remove programs any more so I'm stumped.

How do I get rid of it please? I don't use it at all and this old pc can do with all the space it can get. Thanks

Liz

fwor

IIRC, there is no real way to get rid of IE in XP, because most of it is built as an integral part of the OS anyway. Even if you get rid of the icons/menu entries, most of the code will still be there, so nothing much to be gained.

What you may have succeeded in doing is reverting to an even earlier version of IE. Best to just leave it there and use a different browser. And re-install SP3 - it made XP a lot better.

Eliza_2

Thank you, yes I see that the version of IE that I have is now version 6. What a pain, I so want to lose some programs and I hate having things wasting space when I never use them anyway.

Will just have to reinstall, thanks again.

Liz

alanrowell

If I was you I'd go to Windows Update and apply all the recommended updates rather than reinstalling SP3 then going to Windows Updates. It should be a smoother process.

The latest version of IE for XP is IE8 so you really should have that installed as well rather than IE7 or - horrors - IE6 which is a crook's playpen.

macman

By removing SP3 you've just made your PC much more vulnerable to infection or attack.

Eliza_2

Thanks. Yes I have every intention of reinstalling SP3 or updating as advised above. I still don't see why I have to upgrade IE or even have it at all as I never use it. It just takes up valuable space. However it seems as though there's no option so am reinstalling it .

Shame as the pc was whizzing along without it all.

Thanks for the advice one and all.

Liz

pcombo

lol i would be annoyed if IE took up GB's but it takes less than 100Mb which is nothing.

you can remove it from add/remove windows components but it doesn't remove it fully will just remove shortcuts and some files.

prowla

Isn't IE required for applying the service packs?

If you want to save space you could look at doing some disk cleanup and purging the service packs uninstall items.

Eliza_2

Thanks, yes have done lots of clean ups and got rid of stuff but on a 10 yr old pc every kb I can get rid of helps, let alone mbs and I don't think gbs were invented when this pc was born.

It's busy updating itself now so back to square one! Thanks all.

spud17

Tell us the size of your hard drive and how much free space you have.
If you have CCleaner, >Tools> Uninstall, bottom right, click on 'Save to text file' then copy/paste that on here. There may be things you can safely get rid of.

marms

Eliza wrote: »

Thanks. Yes I have every intention of reinstalling SP3 or updating as advised above. I still don't see why I have to upgrade IE or even have it at all as I never use it. It just takes up valuable space. However it seems as though there's no option so am reinstalling it .

Liz

Internet Explorer code is also used by Windows Explorer which is why you can never really uninstall it, SP3 will install the updated version of IE again as it fixes security problems in windows.