Removal of IE

Oks, Im attempting to find a way to completely remove IE from WinXP Professional. Now I know for a fact that the so called "uninstall" method that XP gives is a false thing. Cause of adware and stuff I have these weird things coming up on IE.

Does anyone know of a method inorder to completely remove IE from the system? Or should I complain to MS about this nice lil feature that they are making me use?

NeoSpawn

 

If you're hoping to remove IE then reinstall in an attempt to remove adware and spyware, you'll be spinning your wheels. You need spyware/malware removers to do that. If you want to remove it just because you don't want it, why not just quit using it?! At any rate, if you were to search for and delete any and all folders/files, registry entries, shortcuts and references to IE, I suppose it would be considered uninstalled, as it would be rendered completely useless. And with any luck, you wouldn't disrupt any other programs/processes in the process (doubtful).

 

It is not worth the major effort to untangle IE from XP- if, in fact, can be done. You can replace it, and ignore it, but as Dave pointed out, that will not help with malware. If your computer is infected, removing IE will not improve performance.

This is from my notes, and I am sorry I cannot properly credit the author.

How to Remove IE from XP
Open up Notepad
Cut and paste the following into the empty Notepad window:

Code:

@echo off
C:
cd "\Program Files\Internet Explorer"
if not exist IEXPLORE.EXE goto End
if exist IEXPLORE.EX_ del IEXPLORE.EX_
if not exist IEXPLORE.DIR md IEXPLORE.DIR
if not exist IEXPLORE.DIR goto End
attrib -r -h -s IEXPLORE.EXE
ren IEXPLORE.EXE IEXPLORE.EX_
if exist IEXPLORE.EXE goto End
ren IEXPLORE.DIR IEXPLORE.EXE
echo IE disabled.
echo If prompted, click "Cancel" then "Yes" on File Protection restore.
echo Run enable-ie.bat to allow IE to run again.
:End



(The above code assumes your Windows XP is installed to your C:\ drive. If it
isn't, change the C: beneath @echo off to the drive letter corresponding to
whichever HDD or drive partition that you have Windows XP installed to

Now save text file this as "disable-ie.bat" to your desktop, or elsewhere.
Double click on the saved "disable-ie.bat" file.

( "Windows File Protection" will most likely kick in at this point, with a warning dialog
box, saying some system files have been replaced with unrecognised versions, and
to insert your Windows XP CD to restore them. Don't worry, it's safe to ignore this.)

Now, everytime you try to open IE, all you'll get is an empty IE window. You need not
even reboot your PC for these changes to take effect. The effects are instantaneous.

If at any time, you decide you want to re-enable IE, follow these instructions to create
another batch file that reverses the changes made by the aforementioned batch file:

Code:

@echo off
C:
cd "\Program Files\Internet Explorer"
if not exist IEXPLORE.EX_ goto End
if not exist IEXPLORE.EXE goto Activate
attrib -r -h -s IEXPLORE.EXE
rd IEXPLORE.EXE
if exist IEXPLORE.EXE del IEXPLORE.EXE
:Activate
ren IEXPLORE.EX_ IEXPLORE.EXE
echo IE enabled.
:End

Save this as "enable-ie.bat" and put it in the same place as "disable-ie.bat"

As before, this assumes you have Windows XP installed on your C:\ drive. Again, if your
copy of Windows XP is not on the C:\ drive, make the same changes I explained earlier.


A complete system clean up would be my advice, echoing Dave. You can always ignore IE if you prefer another browser.

Johanna

 

Hey thanks alot. Thing is I want to completely avoid using IE in the system. So I'm gonna try out what Johnna said and get back to you on that.

Thanks a lot.

 

WOW Johanna!

First time I've seen that one. It's now copied to my notes as well.
Thanks!!

 

You really can't get rid of it (without breaking things), and doing so won't solve your particular problems, but here:

http://www.ultratech-llc.com/KB/?File=RemoveIE.TXT

If you want to be sure that it's gone, open WINDOWS EXPLORER to C: or any other drive, then put a URL in the address bar and see if you can get to the web site.