You’re using Windows 7 or later and happy with Chrome, Firefox or one of several other browsers and while Internet Explorer doesn’t get in the way, just knowing it’s sitting on your hard drive, consuming space, is driving you up the wall. Don’t fret — here’s how you can quickly pluck it from your operating system.
gHacks’ Martin Brinkmann has compiled a quick guide to excising Internet Explorer 11 from the most recent flavours of Windows.
Removing IE 11 in Windows 7 is simple, but the option is a little hidden away. You’ll need to crack open the Control Panel -> Programs -> Uninstall a program. From here, you’ll need to click “View installed updates” on the sidebar. Then find “Internet Explorer 11” in the right-hand list view, right-click on it and hit “Uninstall”.
As for Windows 8, Microsoft decided to move IE 11 to the “Windows Features” section. Getting there is a similar procedure to that outlined above, except instead of clicking “Uninstall a program” you’ll need to navigate to “Turn Windows features on or off” instead.
If you need more comprehensive instructions, along with screenshots, check out the original article on gHacks.
Comments
14 responses to “Getting Rid Of Internet Explorer 11 In Windows 7, 8 And 8.1”
I would have to recommend against this, unless I am mistaken, doing this would also remove the embedded internet explorer that some other programs use to display web pages, so it would also break all of them.
Edit:
I might be a bit wrong, I think it would do that if you disabled the feature in the control panel, but not if you only uninstall the update.
Yup.. this is my experience also, in the past using 7 in particular i’ve found that removing IE is a bad idea…! 🙂
I’ve been disabling it using the features menu in both 7 and 8, and I’ve never encountered a problem before.
Mind you looking in the program folders it looks like it leaves a few core files behind, maybe these are the ones used by other programs?
If you would help me out here. I need my computer to work and all of the new computers have this 8.1 windows with IE11. I need to disable IE11 and install IE6,7,8,9. Please help me understand. Thank you!
You can’t install older versions of internet explorer on windows 8.1
If you need it for web development consider browse em all (http://www.browseemall.com)
You need to do the same thing with 7. Ie, going to “Programs and Features” and removing IE from there.
Why remove it? Why not just dont use it?
I recommend not to remove it either. Keep it up to date through Windows Updates and use it every so often you need to visit a poorly built website that isn’t working right in Firefox or Chrome. I had a shipping tracking site I had to use once to track something I was expecting and trying to use it in anything but Internet Explorer was hopeless.
This only removes the updates to IE. You’ll be left with IE8 which came default with Windows 7, if doing this on Win7.
To remove IE is another matter entirely: Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows Features On/Off.
Bad idea. I work in I.T. support and find many modern devices require OCX controls to manage them from IE. I’m not suggesting that’s good practice, far from it, but you get stuck with it from some suppliers. Good luck trying to run it in Safari or Firefox. Also britto89’s comment is very valid, another not uncommon support problem. Suggest that people just leave IE alone so it can be used when necessary, because it occasionally is really necessary.
I keep IE on and updated for when other people use my computer, so they don’t see all the wonderful autocorrect predictions of my Chrome history.
Why would I want to do this? We’re into the second year of Windows 8 and Chrome still sucks arse. No dynamic scaling, absolute failure at touch controls. EAD Google.
I’m a developer, I need them all installed regardless. But like others, I wouldn’t recommend removing it. It’s used as an embedded system in countless other programs. And besides, IE10 and 11 are actually decent browsers. They’ve made some solid improvements in the last two versions, IE11 scores 100/100 on the Acid3 test and benchmarks faster than Chrome and Firefox in some areas.
I use Internet Explorer… to download the setup file for FireFox if i don’t have it available after i format my hard drive. 😛
I need to get back to the IE version before 11. I use a payroll system for my company in the US, Intuit Online Payroll. I cannot even login to Intuit Online Payroll using IE 11, and Intuit has confirmed to me that the problem is real. Until Intuit resolves these problems, I need to get back to the previous version of IE. Can anyone provide help as to how to uninstall IE 11 and then install the previous version of IE? I’m on a laptop that has Windows 7. fyi, I would use Firefox or Chrome, but Intuit is not completely compatible with these browsers. Thanks, Howard
I know for one that the Source Engines server “MOTD” popups and such uses the IE plugin to run, and runs incorrectly, and can cause crashes if its not left installed.
I am running Win 7 Pro 64 bit SP1. I updated to IE 11 recently, & it seemed to work fine. Then, after about a week, it would not open completely (white screen) & locked up the PC so that Task Start Mgr. would not work, & only restart got the PC unlocked.
I tried to use the above directions to remove IE 11 so I could re-install IE 10, or earlier. I got rid of the IE folder in Prog. Files (x86), and all but 2 dlls in the Prog. Files. Could not install IE 10, got a message that IE 10 didn’t install because a newer version was already installed.
I re-installed IE 11, & ran chkdsk.exe. IE 11 still locks PC up. If I try to install IE 10, message says it is already installed, but I can’t find it.
HELP!! I’m using Chrome now, but need IE sometimes.
Does anyone know how to either uninstall or put a password on the internet explorer on a nokia lumia 1020?
My understanding is that IE11 when disabled just becomes IE10 running in the background. Is that right? My problem is that we use IE to interface with a separate installation that monitors/records classroom activity for playback to remote students. When IE11 arrived, it is no longer compatible with our system, and Windows 8 does not allow loading of older versions of IE. Thus our students using Windows 8 cannot participate unless we find a way to get around this problem. So my question is how do I access IE10 or lower after disabling IE11?
I was trying unsuccessfully to uninstall IE11, but after reading these posts, I’ve decided to keep it. The problem is that everytime I try to use it, I keep getting Error 1316 – A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file C:\Windows\Installer\SweetIEsetup.msi. Can anyone help me get IE working?
Also, some sites, especially certain government sites, don’t work with other browsers properly.
Cool article bro.
Hey could you do an article on how to get rid of svchost.exe? Also, I’ve notices the C:\Windows\System32 folder takes up a lot of disk space, is it safe to delete?
tbanks in advance
i have installed(fresh copy) win 8.1 it has internet explorer 11… the application i want to use runs with E10 or lower version.. i want to remove E11 and instead of that i want E10.. when i turn off features and try to install E10 i get pop window that E10 is already installed.. need help plzz
Same issue here. Any news on installing older version of IE on Windows 8.1?
In some cases it is necessary to downgrade to a previous version of IE. Military personnel trying to access ALMS on a personal computer, for example, have to use IE 8 or 9 or it will not work. I have done this on both my machines since I regularly have the need to access ALMS. It has been that way for about a year and I have never had a problem with it. I do, however, agree with most people here. I prefer Chrome but IE does have its uses when certain sites won’t work properly. I would only downgrade IE if there is a specific need to do so, as in the situation I described.
I can’t uninstall updates as there is no IE updates there. So how would you do it if you don’t have an update for ie 11 but have ie 11, most everything tells me you can’t uninstall it the only thing you can do is disable it, but yes it drives me crazy to know its out there silently stalking me and i just know at some point it will all by itself enable itself and POP at me. Mostly I wanted to get rid of it because Yahoo hijacked my browser and after 2 days of trying everything I have found on the web to remove it I gave up. Can’t disable it as both the enable and disable buttons are grey, but its definitely enabled. but I digress….. any help to actually remove the devious program would be much appreciated 🙂
I followed this stupid advice and lost everything.
I did a System Restore and voila.
He doesn’t know what he is talking about.
A less computer-minded person would panic.
I posted this on his blog as well.
Hmmm, there are a lot of dangerous idiots on the net!
I spent a week trying to sort this out after installing the IE11 update, but finally after reading this I found the solution. Many thanks and now back to IE8 where I will stay. Cannot believe the problems updating to IE11 caused, Best regards
What was your solution for this pleas? I have been having the same issue. Uninstall following what was described but no IE10 left behind. Then when I try to install, the computer says it is already there. I have not been able to find a solution that works.
how to delete windows 11
When you get rid of IE 11, you may also have to remove windows update KB2670838. This update is also known as the “evil” platform update as it causes many computer issues such as the error message saying windows 32 or 64 is not compatible for windows 7. It’s the update. I know. I had this problem til I remove it.
One you remove IE 11 it may revert to IE 10. IE 10 also has this KB2670838 update so be sure to check installed updates and remove this evil platform if you can find it. Then you’ll be reverted to IE 8.
After removing the evil update go to check for updates in the control panel and if it shows up in the important updates or optional updates, highlight it, right click on it and choose hide update. The box will be unchecked if it is or the grey boxes will become clear.
Then choose change settings for updates and switch from automatically add updates to download updates but let me choose to install. Hope this helps.
Sorry for all the letters I left out of my words. I hope these instructions are clear enough. My apologies if I confused anyone. I’m not an expert just got frustrated by the error message until some wonderful tech let us know it was the update causing the error message(s).