Isn't it possible to delete the Internet Explorer browser?

Sunrise12 · 06 Nov 2014

There is apparently no option to delete IE from the Remove Programs utility.

And I can't seem to delete the file or rename the application file with my admin account.

I get an error message saying it is not allowed.

I do not use IE and have Firefox set as the default browser and do not use that either anymore. I do not need any browser in there since I do not browse online with that computer anyway.

So, it is a moot point about IE, which is really extraneous, but I wondered if it was truly a "forced" embedded program, being part of the MS family and all.

Layback Bear · 06 Nov 2014

As far as I know you can remove various versions like removing I.E. 11 but it will revert to I.E. 10 and so on until it stops at I.E. 8.
I.E. is part of Windows 7. You don't have to use it but without some crazy scarey registry hacks I don't believe I.E. can be removed.

As far as I know their is no good reason to remove I.E. completely.

I.E. does come in handy when getting Windows 7 Updates.

Sunrise12 · 06 Nov 2014

It is a terrible browser. That is just one thing of many that I do not like about MS Windows.

That said, Win 7 is my favorite OS of all and has many nice features. But I do not like many of the forced things.

MrNeeds · 06 Nov 2014

as Layback Bear has said, you can remove updates but not remove it completely, you can do so by going to "programs and features" in control panel and clicking on "turn windows features on or off" on the left bar, it looks like this:

Isn't it possible to delete the Internet Explorer browser?-windows-features.jpg

Layback Bear · 06 Nov 2014

Yes MrNeeds you can turn I.E. off. Turning I.E. off does not remove I.E..

LMiller7 · 06 Nov 2014

Sunrise12 said:

It is a terrible browser.

That is an opinion, and one which many experienced members of this forum would strongly disagree.

Internet Explorer is not an independent application. Going as far back as Windows 98 it has been a part of the OS and cannot be removed without serious loss of functionality. Not recommended.

When the uninstall option for Internet Explorer is present it will simply revert to the previous version. For security reasons it is normally best to have the latest version installed, even if you do not use it.

Edit: Many parts of Internet Explorer are used for other things besides web browsing. Code reuse has been a part of good programming practice for a long time. Why have multiple blocks of code that perform the same function?