The idea of the removal of Internet Explorer (IE) from
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
was proposed during the ''
United States v. Microsoft Corp.
''United States v. Microsoft Corporation'', 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001), was a landmark American antitrust law case at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally ...
'' case. Later, security advocates took up the idea as a way to protect Windows systems from attacks via IE
vulnerabilities
Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally."
A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...
.
The process of removing
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...
from a personal computer has changed over the browser's version history, but the nature of many of its upgrades and installation methods has been a matter of public interest. The first version to be included was
version 2
Version may refer to:
Computing
* Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program
* VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS
Music
* Cover version
* Dub version
* Remix
* ''V ...
with
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...
in late 1996. Later, users who upgraded to IE3 (which came out in 1996), could still use the last IE, because the installation converted the previous version to separate directory. However, Internet Explorer 4 created a controversy with its shell integration with
Windows Explorer
File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file ...
. With later versions, removal (or inability to do so) became more complicated. With the release of
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) (codenamed Rincon) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on October 18, 2006, as the seventh version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 7 is par ...
, shell integration began being reduced, such as changing
ActiveX
ActiveX is a deprecated software framework created by Microsoft that adapts its earlier Component Object Model (COM) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies for content downloaded from a network, particularly from the World Wide Web. ...
hosting and a different look than Windows Explorer.
It was proposed that a special version of
Windows 7
Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
, Windows 7 E, would be shipped without Internet Explorer in Europe as a result of
EU antitrust investigations against Microsoft.
However, in July 2009, Microsoft canceled the Windows 7 E editions due to negative reactions from computer manufacturers.
In 2015, Microsoft released
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is a proprietary, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft. It was first released in 2015 as part of Windows 10 and Xbox One and later ported to other platforms as a fork of Google's Chromium open-source project: Android ...
which firstly based on
EdgeHTML on launch along with
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
, until it became
Chromium
Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal.
Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...
-based in 2020 which replaced IE's status as the default browser in Windows 10. IE 11 is still available and preinstalled on Windows 10, but users setting up their computers for the first time have to actively seek it from the Windows Accessories folder in the Start menu since it is not pinned to the taskbar by default. The main reason for keeping Internet Explorer in Windows 10 is to run websites, based on legacy HTML technologies, which are not, or improperly, supported in Microsoft Edge.
On May 19, 2021, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer will be no longer supported on June 15, 2022 and as part of transition, IE mode will be available on the new Microsoft Edge which allows launch older ActiveX controls and legacy websites until at least 2029.
Windows 11
Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released in October 2021. It is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), and is available for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 ...
removed Internet Explorer, although it was disabled and some of its files are still stored in Windows'
Program Files Program Files is the directory name of a standard folder in Microsoft Windows operating systems in which application software, applications that are not part of the operating system are conventionally installed. Typically, each application installed ...
folder. Users that are trying to run
iexplore.exe
via
Run command
The Run command on an operating system such as Microsoft Windows and Unix-like systems is used to directly open an application or document whose path is known.
Overview
The command functions more or less like a single-line command-line interface ...
will be redirected to Microsoft Edge. Additionally, if it is run for the first time since the release of Edge Chromium, IE11 will now open a new tab that redirects to Edge's website, with a notice that "some websites no longer support Internet Explorer". Internet Explorer is also disabled on Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel after installing February 14, 2023 security update, and visual references of the browser will be removed on June 13, 2023.
Overview
Internet Explorer comes as an integrated component of Windows that cannot be uninstalled. Newer versions of Internet Explorer are sometimes released for existing operating systems, replacing the older version. Optionally, users may later choose to revert this upgrade. Starting with
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), releas ...
, it is possible to disable Internet Explorer: The user can no longer launch it but its
web browser engine
A browser engine (also known as a layout engine or rendering engine) is a core software component of every major web browser. The primary job of a browser engine is to transform HTML documents and other resources of a web page into an interactiv ...
remains operational for applications that use it.
This is not unique to Windows:
Safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
, the default browser on
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, is similarly integrated into the operating system. While it is possible to delete the application itself without problem, Safari is in fact merely a front-end for Apple's
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
WebKit
WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as on the iOS and iPadOS version of any web browser. WebKit is also used by the BlackBerry Browser, PlayStation consoles beginning from the PS ...
framework, which is heavily integrated into the operating system and cannot be removed.
The idea of removing Internet Explorer was proposed during the ''
United States v. Microsoft Corp.
''United States v. Microsoft Corporation'', 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001), was a landmark American antitrust law case at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally ...
'' case. One of Microsoft's arguments during the trial, however, was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability.
Definition
It is unclear what it means to "remove IE" because such a removal depends on being able to determine which files or functions on an installed Windows system are part of IE — that is, to draw a line between IE and the rest of Windows. Microsoft has held that this is not meaningful; that in Windows 98 and newer versions, "Internet Explorer" is not a separate piece of software but simply a
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
name for the web browsing and HTML rendering capacities of the Windows operating system. In this view, the result of removing IE is simply a damaged Windows system; to have a working system without IE one must replace Windows entirely.
In contrast, some programmers and security writers have held that it is possible to have a useful and working Windows system with IE excised. These people include consultant Fred Vorck, who advocates that consumers should have the choice to remove "integrated" features of Microsoft Windows
and participates in the
HFSLIP project; Dino Nuhagic, who is the creator of
nLite, a product that allows users to remove Windows components like Internet Explorer and
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...
; and Shane Brooks, who created
98lite and
XPLite to remove and manage Windows components after the installation of the operating system. Some people have suggested the use of alternative browsers instead of Internet Explorer, to try reduce the risk of vulnerabilities.
Methods
Methods have been developed by these programmers and others to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 95 after installing, as well as before install time. Removing Internet Explorer from Windows 2000,
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is also possible at installation time.
Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks demonstrated that
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...
could in fact run with Internet Explorer removed. Brooks made his work available as a freeware removal utility called IEradicator, which removes all versions of IE from all versions of
Windows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in subs ...
, but leaving the rendering engine and some other components behind for application compatibility. Brooks went on to develop a more sophisticated program for Windows 98 and
Windows ME
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...
, marketed as
98lite, which turns IE, along with several other "mandatory" Windows components, including the IE components left behind by IEradicator, into optional components that can be added or removed from the OS at will. He later created
XPLite, which renders many parts of Windows 2000 and XP into optional components. Both of Brooks's programs can remove IE after the installation of the operating system.
Another programmer named Bruce Jensen published a similar utility called "Revenge of Mozilla", which was freeware and removed many other Windows 98 components identified as "
bloatware
Software bloat is a process whereby successive versions of a computer program become perceptibly slower, use more memory, disk space or processing power, or have higher hardware requirements than the previous version, while making only dubious use ...
" or as being of questionable value. Although Revenge of Mozilla asked the user to supply some files from the Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 version of the Windows Explorer shell (necessary for compatibility with the FAT32 file system) that did not have the "Windows Desktop Update" that came with Internet Explorer 4/Windows 98. As a result of the shell replacement, Windows used significantly fewer resources than normal, the shell didn't leak resources like Windows 98's version did, and Windows crashed less. In 98Lite, using Explorer from Windows 95 OSR 2 was optional.
There are other methods of removing IE based on modifying the Windows installation process so that IE is never installed in the first place.
98lite can be used in this way. A method developed by Fred Vorck manually alters the setup scripts for Windows 2000 to prevent the installation of IE.
His process has been automated as a feature of
HFSLIP.
nLite and
HFSLIP are automated programs that allow users to modify the Windows installation process, both to incorporate patches and updates and to exclude IE and many other Windows components from installation as desired.
Impacts
Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Some programs bundled with Windows, such as
Outlook Express
Outlook Express, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Mail and News, is a discontinued email and news client included with Internet Explorer versions 3.0 through to 6.0. As such, it was bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from ...
, and some basic Windows components, such as
Help and Support, depend on libraries installed by IE in order to function. Before
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
, it was not possible to run
Windows Update
Windows Update is a Microsoft service for the Windows 9x and Windows NT families of operating system, which automates downloading and installing Microsoft Windows software updates over the Internet. The service delivers software updates for Wind ...
without IE because the service used ActiveX technology, which no other web browser supports. With IE removed they fail to work, either partially or entirely. In addition,
third-party web browsers based on MSHTML engine require IE and stop working without it.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Removal Of Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer