Help! Is there any way to uninstall Internet Explorer on XP?

[MusicTVstar]

I'd been having a lot of problems with IE. But, I use Mozilla Firefox now, and it works great. Except, once in a while I'll get random pop-ups in Explorer windows without even opening Explorer. I've used spybot, ad-aware etc and these pop-ups still wont go away. I figured, if I uninstall IE all will be well. The only problem is that my computer wont let me uninstall IE in "add or remove programs." Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Racenut20]

1. I get tons of IE popups, most of them on this sight. Help!!!!

[librechik]

5. switch to Mozilla--my popup problems have disappeared since I did n/t

[Don_G]

2. Remove MSN Messenger From Your Start-Up Program File?

That may do the trick since a lot of pop-ups work through it.

[Cooley Hurd]

13. Yep, but it's the Messenger that Windows has for...

...systems admin messaging purposes. Here's how you disable it:

1) Right-click "My Computer" and choose "manage" from the menu.

2) On the left side, double-click "Services and Applications"

3) Underneath that, double-click "services"

4) On the right side at the bottom, select the "standard" tab

5) Scroll down the services list in the right window and find "Messenger"

6) Right-click on "Messenger" and select "stop" from the menu

7) Right-click "Messenger" again and select "properties"

8) Under the "startup" tab, there's a box for "startup type" - click the down-arrow and select "disabled"

9) Click "apply" and "ok"

This should stop many of your popups. Good luck!!!

[librechik]

3. I had to keep IE even though I mainly use Firefox

rarely a page won't open for me--(Microsoft related ones, mainly) and I have to switch over to IE to open it. On those occasions I'm glad I kept IE, even though it basically sucks. I don't know how to uninstall it if your computer won't let you. Try google "uninstall IE" and see if you can get any hints.


Here's something:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q293907

[Marnieworld]

4. This link explains how

This was why they were sued.If people can't uninstall explorer then it hurts netscape etc.

This link tells you how:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;293907

[kiahzero]

16. That won't work for XP

You CANNOT uninstall IE from Windows XP, as it is part of the OS.

[Marnieworld]

6. Also use Google toolbar to avoid pop-ups within IE n/t

[PeaceForever]

7. Have you tried deleting it manually?

Go to Program Files in your C drive and delete the Internet Explorer folder.

Does that work?

[Kellanved]

9. Nope, that would not work

XP would just restore the files during the next boot. Of course it is not even easily possible to delete them while running XP.

Completely removing IE is neither easy nor good: many other programs rely on the presence of the MS HTML libraries. There are How-Tos (and even fully fledged tools) to remove IE and leave the libraries; however M$ has combined the shell and MS to a degree, where it is just plainly a pain in the ass to go completely without IE (for no good technical reason).

There should be the option to disable IE for the internet by selecting it in the add/remove dialog; I'm not sure if SP1 has to be installed for that option to be present.

Get a Spyware search utility and run it. (Edit: http://security.kolla.de/ and http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ )
Also, a firewall might stop the popups.

Although the original post described the popups as being IE, disabling the messenger service is almost always a good idea.

http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/docs/messagepopup/

[Big Kahuna]

8. You are probably the victim of browser hijackers.

Below is a link to a utility that removes unwanted extensions to internet explorer.

http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_hijackthis.html

Be very careful when using this utility. It can remove needed items, like your virus scanner's ability to scan downloaded files, etc..

My advice is to remove anything that doesn't look like it comes stock with windows, or part of a reputable product, such as McAfee, Norton Antivirus, Adobe Acrobat, etc..

Look for cheezy entries like "keenvalue", "whenUsave", "default-homepage-network"

[Stew225]

10. I'm in the same boat. I can't uninstall IE

and when I try the link just suggested I get this message: The page you were looking for is currently not available. The address may not be correct, or there may be a temporary problem with this site.

Please try one of the following options for assistance:

I'm convinced that IE is the devil. btw, I use Mozilla now and like it.

[Maestro]

11. Go here.

This should do it for you.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q293/9/07.ASP&NoWebContent=1

[MusicTVstar]

12. Thanks everyone

I'm gonna try the few things that were suggested here, and I'll tell you what (if anything) worked.

[kiahzero]

14. No, it's integrated into the OS

Stupidest move ever by Microsoft. Internet Explorer is what is opened when you click "My Computer," "My Network Places," or any of the other Windows folders.

[LTR]

15. Keep IE on your system, but hack your HOSTS file

This link shows you how:

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Your custom HOSTS file will block many known malicious sites, and many ad and pop-up servers.

Don't uninstall IE. If you don't use it for web surfing, it won't hurt your system.

You can remove the IE icon from the desktop, though.

[Sparrow]

17. disable messenger in Services

Control Panel >>>>>> Admin Tools >>>>>>>>Services
right click on messenger
>>click properties>>>change startup type to disabled