How to uninstall Internet Explorer completely.

Some time ago I wrote about Internet Explorer and the risks involved in uninstalling it in that it could damage Windows and even stop them from working if you uninstalled the Internet Explorer browser. But since that time I have done more research and I have actually uninstalled Internet Explorer 8 from my two Windows 7 laptops without doing any damage to my system.




The following information I am going to give applies to Windows 7 computers and laptops only. I do not know what the case would be if you were to completely remove Internet Explorer or IE for short from a Windows Vista,Windows XP or an older version of Windows computer. As these systems may depend more on IE to function properly than Windows 7 systems do. 


And you probably should not remove Internet Explorer completely unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. As this method of uninstalling Internet explorer will PERMANENTLY remove Internet Explorer browser from your computer and you will not be able to use it anymore or even install it again. I have tried to re install IE by downloading it again to see if there is a way to re install the browser but IE is now PERMANENTLY off of my computer.

So if you are sure that you want to get rid of Internet Explorer for good so you do not have to deal with it anymore,here goes. First of all you MUST have one or more alternative web browsers installed on your computer,such as Firefox, Google Chrome or another web browser,otherwise after you have removed Internet Explorer you will not be able to access the Internet. This first advice is very important and it is a good idea to have more than one other web browser on your computer,in case one of them crashes. So here is how to remove IE.

Internet Explorer cannot be uninstalled in the programs menu or in installed updates. It is not even listed in the uninstall a program index or in installed updates. If you have installed a later version of Internet Explorer for example IE9, it will be listed in installed updates and you can uninstall it from there. BUT this will not remove Internet Explorer,this will only re install IE8, the previous version of Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer 8 can also be turned off in the turn Windows features on or off settings,but this does not remove IE either,it just disables it. 

But another way to remove Internet Explorer is to delete the file on your hard drive. And this will remove any program on your computer,delete the file,delete the browser. But with IE it is not that simple as Internet Explorer is a Trusted Installer file. Which means that Trusted Installer,which is part of Microsoft owns the file not you, even though it's your computer! So,try to delete the file and Windows will not let you do it,you will get a message saying that" you need permission from Trusted Installer to delete this file" or some thing like that.The following method will remove IE from your system.

First go to your hard disk file marked computer on your system,in Windows Explorer where your files are stored and look for the file, programs. 

Then in programs look for the file Internet Explorer and click properties. This then displays the written details of the file. Then the next thing you have to do is change the ownership of the file from Trusted Installer to your name. This is either your administrator account name or user account name on your computer or laptop. Then change file permissions to your name and now YOU own the Internet Explorer file not Trusted Installer. 

After you have done this you can then open the file and delete most of the contense of it. I had to open the file and delete the file contense one by one as I could not delete the whole file. And then there will still be some content of the file left over.

To remove the remainder of the content download the tool called UNLOCKER.

This tool,Unlocker,will unlock and delete any kind of file on your computer,even files that are difficult or impossible to delete. With the Unlocker tool look for the file Internet Explorer and click unlock,this then unlocks the remaining Internet Explorer files. Once the file is unlocked click delete. You will then get a message saying" cannot delete the file now it is in use. Would you like to delete it after you re start your computer?" Then click" yes" and then re start your computer.

Now when you go back into your program files you will see that Internet Explorer is no longer there. Internet Explorer is now removed from your computer.

Now go back into turn windows features on or off settings and un tick Internet Explorer in the list to turn it off. You will find that even though Internet Explorer is now removed from your computer it is still listed in the,turn Windows features on or off index. But it is definitely uninstalled from your computer. 

Then after you have restarted your computer you will find that Internet Explorer is again listed in programs on your hard drive. But the file is now empty and you can just delete this file without any problems. This is because we have ONLY removed the browser,Internet Explorer, not the software component of Internet Explorer that is used in Windows. Which is nothing to do with the web browser,so that is why Windows will still work.

I have not had any problems with my laptop at all since I removed IE. Windows update,Windows Media all still work as before. And what is interesting is that my Aol Explorer,Deepnet Explorer and Pink browser,all of which are IE based browsers still work as good as before. A lot of people think that these web browsers and others like Avant browser and Green browser that use the Internet Explorer engine need Internet Explorer to run them. But I have tried running both Avant browser and Green browser and others like it on my laptop. 

Since I have uninstalled Internet Explorer,and all of these browsers are working,without Internet Explorer. Which suggests that Avant browser and others are not running off of IE but off of Windows. Which is good news for anybody who wants to carry on using these browsers after they remove IE. And my other browsers,Chromium and Flock,which run off a different engine are working too. 

It is true that IE is bundled with Windows and that there is a risk in removing it that you could damage your system. But on Windows 7 anyway, as long as you ONLY remove the browser,which is what is in the Internet Explorer file. And do not alter or delete any of the Windows files. Which contains your copy of Windows then you should be okay. There is nothing about Internet Explorer that I miss and if anything my computer is working better without it.