Resolved Restore Search Box in IE 9?

I just spoke with HP, and manufacturer of my Pavillion notebook. Using my product # and serial #, they looked up the manifest and confirmed that you are absolutely correct, Arie.

My notebook was originally loaded with IE 8 and then updated prior to shipping to Costco (where I got it with a great $100 off extra discount).

The nice gentleman in Banmgalore ... er, excuse me, in Mountain View, assured me that it is impossible to uninstall IE 9 and NOT have IE 8 left on it.

But I'll take your warning of a possible pear-shaped future to heart and download Firefox just in case.

Btw, how do I set automatic updates so IE 9 won't be re-installed? Can I leave it so that "important" updates are auto installed but recommended updates they have to ask me?

(P.S. The HP tech said that in his opinion, IE 8 is more stable anyway. He says he gets calls every day from people having problems with video and other things in IE 9.)

 

Different computer now, related question:

On my office desktop PC, I run IE 8 on a Win 7 64-bit machine. But I was just checking "view update history" under Windows Updates and see that on 3/7/12, IE 9 was supppsedly installed successfully as an "important" update.

But I know I'm using IE 8 (I just double-checked "about" in IE). And when I check "view installed updates," IE 9 is not listed under the Microsoft Windows section.

So what's going on?

It says IE 9 was installed, but it's not.

My update settings allow all important updates to be installed automatically, but obviously IE 9 is not installed.

Could it be that "view update history" refers only to downloaded updates, and that "view installed updates" shows the only ones that have been installed?

Did I do something and forget doing it -- like updating to IE 9, uninstalling it, and somehow telling IE 9 never to try again?

Weird.

 

Okay, I'm back at home and ready to uninstall IE 9 tonight.

One question: if the uninstall goes south on me, will system restore bring IE 9 back?

 

Thanks, Arie. That was very kind of you to double check that.

 

I don't think that it will matter as MS is going to force IE 9 on you and you will have no choice. Best thing is to get something like the Google tool bar and be done with it.

 

Stupid thing like eliminating a search bar is something they might correct.

 

It worked, Arie!

I now have IE 8 running on the machine. And the listing for IE 9 in "turn Windows features on or off" has morphed into IE 8.

Thank you.

I want to ask you about your post a long while ago about creating daily automatic restore points -- your method wporked perfectly on my desktop but doesn't work on my new laptop and i'm not sure why -- but should I mark this thread resolved and start a new one?

 

MS to force IE 8 and IE 9 on customers. Link is below.

ZDNet

 

The article notes, however, that you need to have automatic updates enabled (I'm on download only, then I decide).

It also says: "For business and individuals that don't want the upgrade, perhaps to maintain in-house custom tools, Microsoft provides automatic update blocker kits for IE8 and IE9. "