Can't download, can barely search

My computer is currently barely useable. Please help. I made the mistake of giving in to Firefox's continuously nagging that I should upgrade tho I was ok with what I had. So I upgraded and it was some so called intuitive damned thing and I hated it. So I uninstalled it with c cleaner. Then I used internet explorer, which has lain dormant in my computer for over a year because I hate it and it has never worked right. But I had to drag it out in order to get to a download site. Tried repeatedly to download firefox 28 and IE, which was giving me constant alerts everywhere I went, saying the security certificate didn't match, or had errors. I had to continuously override that. Then when I tried to download Firefox it kept blocking, saying it had to block the navigation of that. I'd try to override, but wasn't able to successfully download. I went into internet options and changed everything I could think of security wise to the lowest levels to no avail. I went to your site to try to download as your site usually gets me there when all others fail, but when I clicked on 'browsers' nothing happened. Tried clicking other things, nothing happened. I barely got here. There's a yellow stip at top even now warning me off you. I have pressing matters to take care of on computer. Please help. Also not very computer literate so if you could simplify as much as possible, would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
alterintell

 

Well, I finally was able to download, but it was Firefox version 29, which I'd previously uninstalled. But it is far better than IE. Can I download 28 as a second browser, and uninstall IE all together, as, see above, IE doesn't work right and there is no higher version for this old computer. Would there be any bad effect to uninstalling IE altogether as it is malfunctioning and I have always hated IE anyway. Would 28 install since I have 29?
Thanks, alterintel

 

What version of Windows are you running? You can't "uninstall" IE as it's an integral part of the OS (leave it to Microsoftrolleyes) but, you can disable it. Once I know which Windows you're running, I can tell you how. You should also disable Outlook Express if you're running XP.

Mozilla discontinues support for previous versions of FF once a new final version is released. It's currently at version 29.0.1. I'm not having any issues with it under either XP or Vista.

 

Thanks for the replies, Plodr and mdonah. For some reason I didn't get a notification of the replies, or maybe this forum doesn't do them. I'll look at my settings. Well, now I like ff29, its much faster than 28 and the problems I mentioned with ie have gone away. I went to mozilla and found a nice color theme for ff and got rid of their terrible default navy blue. Some of the nicer color schemes are disabled for 29, but there are still some nice ones, I just needed to take some time to find them. I use my elderly computer the most; I love it and it runs windows xp professional serpk 2. The ie has always been a problem and I stopped it years ago except when something comes up and I can't use my default browser I'll use it for an hour and hurry up and get something new. So how do I disable IE as I feel I might be invaded via it. Also, Mdonah, I can't disable outlook express, I need it for some things and can't do a work-around. Why would I need to disable it?
Thanks,
alterintel

 

1.) You need to download and install SP3 or you'll be "invaded" from more than just IE.

2.) To disable IE, go to Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs. On the left, open Program Access and Defaults and uncheck Internet Explorer. If some of your programs use the IE engine (like Secunia PSI or WeatherBug) they still will but, you won't be able to access IE directly and your default browser will always be the one that launches.

 

Mdonah,
Can you tell me what doing this [the disabling at program access and defaults], will do for me. FF has already been set elsewhere as my default browser and ie is never used and never comes up. So not sure what I gain by doing this further step?

alterintel

 

In your last post, you asked how to disable IE. With Microsoft support having ended for XP, people are being advised to disable IE AND Outlook Express. I have an XP drive that I use and have done as recommended and am using FF as well for my default browser and am using web-based email instead of Outlook Express. The two programs I mentioned that use the IE engine have also been removed.

While I have all of the resources necessary to reconstruct the XP drive should some form of malware find it's way on to my machine while using XP, many people don't and some of the exploits find their way through IE and OE so, it's safer to have them disabled. I'm running Vista right now and this month there was another security patch for IE.

Did you download and install SP3 as recommended? Microsoft support for SP2 ended in 2010 so, you're probably missing a ton of security updates if you haven't.

 

Thanks mdonah. I will see to it.
Alterintel