Windows 7: How to Disable Internet Explorer

Is there any way to safely uninstall or otherwise disable Internet Explorer?

Hello LonePalm,

Welcome to 7 Forums.

Control Panel (icons view) > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on/off > Uncheck IE8.

Windows Features - Turn On or Off

Hope this helps.

Gary

LonePalm, do what Gary instructed. If you have problems afterwards, here is the MS tutorial

Oddly enough, if you remove IE8 this way, and have Google Chrome onboard and subsequently uninstall Google Chrome you'll find you are faced with an IE8 page which asks you why you decided to uninstall Google Chrome!!!

Microsofts 'remove IE8' option is therefore nothing but a farce, the executables are still there are can still be run - all it does is removes the shortcuts to the program, it does not actually remove the Microsoft browser from your system as is implied...

It's a little like the browser ballot screen which never was...

I think that kept the lawsuits at bay...
Is there a way to truly uninstall it?

It might be possible to take ownership of the IE program folder and delete it - but I'm not absolutely certain this wouldn't upset Windows Explorer functionality as IE used to provide much of the HTML functionality in the Windows Shell and WMP in the past.

You can certainly block it at firewall level and try altering the permissions that apply to it's executables, but since it doesn't run as a service it's not clear under Windows Seven quite what else may depend upon it.

I did not uninstall it, but I removed it from all accessible means.

The only way to start it now is by clicking on the .exe file itself.

I love Chrome.

Thanks!

@Qdos, it does in fact remove IE from the computer. What it doesn't remove is the components that are dependent on like the HTML rendering engine Trident or DLLs that are used for core shell systems. But the IE shell and browser is removed. A lot of other applications make use of the libraries provided by IE.

DO NOT delete anything concerning IE, use the prescribed means of uninstalling it.

Your welcome.