How to Uninstall Internet Explorer

FettesPS — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:40:23 +0000

Let’s not beat around the bush here, Internet Explorer is garbage. It has been the thorn in the side for every web developer that has walked the Earth. The Internet would be a much better place without it. Now that I have that out of the way, I’ll get down to showing you how to remove Internet Explorer of any version on an platform.

Internet Explorer 6

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs
Cick Add/Remove Windows Components
Locate Internet Explorer and uncheck it
Click Next and continue to follow the prompts

Note: Although this will remove all the links to Internet Explorer on your system it will not actually delete IE completely, as it is integrated with the Windows Shell it will still exist on your computer and be used for browsing files.

Chrome Frame
Our friends at Google have offered us another solution for those who cannot uninstall Internet Explorer 6. If you are not an Administrator on your system and cannot remove IE or install an alternate browser then Chrome Frame is the solution you’re looking for. After installing the plugin your browser will be able to render websites using Chrome’s engine, meaning your old and dusty copy of IE6 will be able to run HTML5 and not mangle every other site out there. How do you get this plugin? Just grab it at Google Code.

Internet Explorer 7

Windows XP and Windows Server 2000/2003

Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs
Locate Internet Explorer 7 and click Remove

Note: Uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 will result in Internet Explorer 6 being restored

Windows Vista

Start->Control Panel->Programs and Features
Click View Installed Updates
Locate Internet Explorer 7 and click Uninstall

Note: If the above method does not work for you try following these steps instead:

Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\ie7\spuninst\
Run spuninst.exe

Internet Explorer 8

Windows Vista

Start->Control Panel->Programs and Features
Click View Installed Updates
Locate Internet Explorer 8 and click Uninstall
Cick OK
Click Yes when prompted

Windows 7

Start->Control Panel->Programs and Features
Click Turn Windows Features On or Off
Locate Internet Explorer 8 and uncheck it
Cick OK
Click Yes when prompted

Note: If the above method does not work for you try following these steps instead:

Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\ie8\spuninst\
Run spuninst.exe

Stopping Automatic Updates from Installing Internet Explorer 7/8

Open Internet Explorer
Click Tools then Windows Update
Select Custom
Uncheck the box beside Windows Internet Explorer 7/8 for Windows XP
Check the box beside “Don’t show this update again”

Windows will no longer try to install the newer Internet Explorer versions when doing its automatic updates.

Conditional Comments

FettesPS — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 06:39:55 +0000

Conditional comments only work in Explorer on Windows, and are thus excellently suited to give special instructions meant only for Explorer on Windows. They are supported from Explorer 5 onwards, and it is even possible to distinguish between 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0.

A very good article by Quirksmode.org about conditional commenting for MSIE. Since CSS standards aren’t carried well by he various web browsers, not to mention any names, this comes in quite handy. Sadly only Microsoft supports it, but since they’re the ones not following standards (oh wait, I wasn’t going to mention any names, was I?) it works out well. Simply enclose your style sheet call like so:

And then make your corrections/tweaks in that file. I would go more in depth on the matter, the link details it better than I could.