Permenant removal of Outlook Express

I'm sure this is an ignorant little question that crops up a lot, but I couldn't find anything in a search. I want this gone. It seems even though it's access is turned off and I have Thunderbird open, when I click an NNTP link in FF OE still opens. I was folling the MS steps for removal but deleting or renaming any of the files, XP promptly replaces it. Now I can see that's good for some schmoe who tends to mess things up or has a mischiveous kid, but for me it is truely infuriating. How do I make it stop? Is that done through turning of SYstem Restore, and if so is it going to put them back again when I turn SR back on??

TIA!

 

You cannot remove IE/OE from XP without trashing your OS.

even though it's access is turned off
Exactly how was that done?

SR being on or off will have no effect at all on XP's immediate replacement of protected system files. In Win2K you could turn the feature off pretty easily but I've read through a couple of how-to articles on doing it in XP and even if they worked (questionable) I'm not sure the OS would ever be stable.

NTTP Link
Just to make sure I'm clear here, are we talking about
"NTTP - Short for Network News Transfer Protocol, the protocol used to post, distribute, and retrieve USENET messages. "

 

Well **** that figures, but why? It doesn't seem to have any particular function like IE, except of course to annoy me to no end. You;d figure once removed from the prog list it atleast would not open. I mean, take a hint already!

Through "Set Program Access and Defaults." Thunderbird is set as default and the "Allow Access" checkbox beside OE is unclicked.

Correct. Example: goto Spamcops web site and click on Help and you get a list of places for help, with links to get there. Click the "NNTP" link and it will add Spamcops news server and that particular group. I clicked assuming it would add it to my new install of Thunderbird. "EEEEEENK!!" Wrong. I opened POS Express! GAHH!!

 

I know you are not routinely using IE at this point but open it and see how you are set in the pictured section.

 

Ah-ha! See, that is one of the things that is I dislike so much about Win, there are two places to do the same task for some tasks. On that tab under news groups the field is blank, so I have set it to Thunderbird. Maybe that will fix it. Now if I could figure out how to get an app listed in "Calendar" that is not on the tab, I'll be batting 1000.

Thanks Newt!!

 

No it can't. I tried that and everytime you delete one of the pertinant files like Msimn.exe, Windows pormptly puts a copy of it right back where it was. Now if you know a way to make it stop that, then I'll try it again.

Oh, I might add that since I changed the info in the drop box of Internet Options, clicking the NNTP link on a web page does open Thunderbird now instead of Outlook.

 

No I wasn't. Will that stop the files from replacinge themselvs?? I'll have to try that this eve if I pass this 70-218 test today....