How many instances of Internet Explorer.exe do I really need?

The title says it all. I hate multiple entries of the same program. Just terrorist programmimg IMO.

How many instances of Internet Explorer.exe do I really need? See thumbnail for all instances of iexplore.exe I am assuming I only need one, with a backup somewhere.

8 at 625,664 bytes in various locations.
6 at 93,184 bytes in various locations.

Which should I keep? Which can I delete?
Hope you can assist me clean up these entries. Bazza

 

AFAIK the 'main' one that gets run every time you go on-line is the one in Program Files. The ones in the INF folder and/or the i386 folder are 'safety' nets and can be used to rebuild/repair IE if needed. The others I'm not sure about. Rename 'em to something else temporarily and run your PC as you normally would for a week or two or three, if all is well, you can probably safely delete them.... the Software Distribution folder has something to do with updates if I'm not mistaken if that means anything....
Let us know how things go, this might be interesting!

[dlb]

EDIT- I did a little research- the Software Distribution folder is indeed tied to Windows Updates. From what I can tell, it is totally safe to delete the contents of this folder, but not the folder itself, esp. if you use Automatic Updates. If you do, you may need to disable AU temporarily in order to empty the folder...

 

The first 8 are most likely from where you downloaded and installed an IE update.

The next three are help files.

Next one after that is the actual application file.

After that, part of a service pack update.

The one after that is a leftover from installation, previously known as "cab" files.

The inf ones are used for installing IE, I wouldn't remove them, they have their uses.

 

Thanks Adrynalyne and dlb for your replies. :major I mainly use Opera except when loading MS Updates, or when IE overrides Opera when I click on some links. I will delete one by one and see what happens. I have a Full backup /s, to fall back on if need be.

Bazza

 

I've deleted the 8 biggest sized entries. So far no difference (as expected). IE6 still works, but I rarely use IE anyhow. Bazza

 

I thought you were using Vista/ In that case, its IE7.

 

2 x PC's. 1 laptop using IE6 (with the duplicates) and XP Pro SP3.
1 desktop with Vista SP1 and IE7. Desktop is rarely used. Bazza

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