Internet Explorer - Removal

Removal

Main article: Removal of Internet Explorer

While a major upgrade of Internet Explorer can be uninstalled in a traditional way if the user has saved the original application files for installation, the matter of uninstalling the version of the browser that has shipped with an operating system remains a controversial one.

The idea of removing a stock install of Internet Explorer from a Windows system was proposed during the United States v. Microsoft case. One of Microsoft's arguments during the trial was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability.

Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Applications that depend on libraries installed by IE will fail to function correctly. The Windows help and support system will also not function due to the heavy reliance on HTML help files and components of IE. In versions of Windows before Vista, it is also not possible to run Microsoft's Windows Update or Microsoft Update with any other browser due to the service's implementation of an ActiveX control, which no other browser supports. In Windows Vista, Windows Update is implemented as a Control Panel applet.

With Windows 7, Microsoft added the ability to safely remove Internet Explorer 8 from Windows. Internet Explorer executable (iexplore.exe) is removed without harming any other Windows components.

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Famous quotes containing the word removal:

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    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish,—and that makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not equal to the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the kingdom of darkness, they expend all their energy on some accidental evil, and lose their sanity and power of benefit.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Anyone who seeks for the true causes of miracles, and strives to understand natural phenomena as an intelligent being, and not to gaze at them like a fool, is set down and denounced as an impious heretic by those, whom the masses adore as the interpreters of nature and the gods. Such persons know that, with the removal of ignorance, the wonder which forms their only available means for proving and preserving their authority would vanish also.
    Baruch (Benedict)