Should I uninstall Internet Explorer?

Good Saturday, Geeks!

I've looked through some of the threads here, and it seems uninstalling Internet Explorer isn't exactly cut and dry.

Here's the skinny:

1. I never use IE
   
2. I'm never going to use IE
   
3. Uninstalling IE scares me a little, but I want to do it.

I feel like I have tried it before and had bugs or trouble before. Is it worth it
or should I just make it be quiet, send it to the corner and ignore it?

Any and all advice/experience will be helpful.

• Windows 7
• 64-bit System
• Dell Desktop Machine

Thanks!
7

 

That's exactly what you should do. If you want, you can remove it from your Programs menu and remove any shortcuts (desktop, taskbar, etc.) so that its out of sight.

Do not attempt to remove IE from your system. It's deeply embedded in your Windows OS and trying to remove it will just cause problems. Besides, rare occasions may arise where you need IE. Just yesterday, I was using my Opera browser on a certain website and, when attempting to use a certain feature on the site, I got a message saying I was using an incompatible browser. So, I switched to IE to finish my business with that website.

 

That's exactly what I needed to know.

Thank you usafveteran!~:major

 

Usaveteran is giving good advice just delete all the shortcuts to IE so you don't see it.

I never voluntarily use IE (haven't even given v. 9 a fair chance) mostly because I love my FF extensions and depend on them now.
But I do keep IE around because once in a while a page won't display properly in FF. I use this addon which gives you an option on right-click in FF to open the current page in IE on those occasions. I must admit I have to use it a couple of times a week which proves to me that IE is still useful on some occasions independent of the havoc trying to remove it would cause.

 

I also am a regular FF user and every now and then one of my professors will send me a link for an assignment and just like Sach2 sometimes IE is my only option to view.

 

There's something else about IE that you should know - you need it for your Windows updates as they cannot be installed without it. In any case it is deeply embedded in the system and it is completely impossible to remove it without seriously damaging your system.

Personally I'm a bit mystified by this paranoia about IE. V9 is an excellent browser, fast and safe. For instance when using it today I used a password on a website and a warning popped up that the same password had previously been used on a different site and was I sure that I was actually on the site I intended to be on. I was impressed so I tried it in Firefox, which gave no such warning.

I'm not knocking Firefox, as I keep Chrome, Firefox and IE available on all my comps. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

 

A lawsuit against Microsoft over the web browser was initiated back in 2008 but was later dropped when Microsoft agreed to give users a choice of browsers. For more info in this, see Europe Drops Browser Lawsuit Against Microsoft. The article leaves me wondering exactly what was changed as far as IE is concerned. Did they completely leave IE off the Windows systems sold in Europe or did they leave it in but, upon initial usage by buyers of new computers, display the screen giving users a choice of browsers? Without researching this further, I'm inclined to think IE is probably still in the Windows systems being sold in Europe but it's not set as the default browser. If, indeed, IE is totally absent from those systems, this can only mean the version of Windows sold in Europe different in this respect from version sold in the U.S. and other countries outside of Europe.

Regarding Windows Updates, I believe IE is really not needed for that in Windows 7. While the Tools menu on IE has Windows Update on it, using that is not necessary since Windows Update can be accessed via the Programs menu. Also, the normal automatic updates that usually occur once a month seem to function completely independent of IE.

 

The wife was telling me today, that webpages were loading slow on our desktop, so I asked her which browser, her words were that she was using IE. I told her that was why it was taking forever for pages to load, and suggested that she use Firefox. Of course she disagreed and said that it was a machine issue, for which I know that it is not. The machine in question was top of the line back in 2007, with W7 loaded on it and 2gb RAM.

The only time that I use IE, is when I come across a site that does not work with FF.

 

Yeah, I did a test and you guys are right about this being wrong for Win 7. I'm in UK and have IE installed, and with Task Manager Processes open explorer.exe was running but iexplore.exe was not. I then ran Windows Update and iexplore.exe still did not start. Maybe it would have done if IE was default browser but I didn't test that. iexplore.exe only appears in Processes when IE is launched.

 

Ditto..
Vista. Set IE9 as default. Started WU. In TM, "Applications" tab Windows Update is running. No iexplorer.exe..
Cheers..

 

Just to be sure I wasn't imagining this I ran the same test in XP and sure enough, WU starts iexplore.exe, but in Vista , as sikvik says, it does not. So this change actually came about with Vista, well before the row in Europe about IE and Win 7.

 

Or perhaps was introduced into Vista as a result of the Win 7 row? Anyways, thanks for clearing up one of my misconceptions at least