Is it possible to uninstall Internet Explorer from a Windows XP system?

[RSL]

I'm not figuring it out if it is.

[Dr Unne]

I wouldn't attempt it. After installing Service Pack 1 you can go to Set Program Access and Defaults and set it so that you have no access to IE, and set another browser as default. That will hide IE and removes all shortcuts to it, which to most people is as good as uninstalling it, even though it's still there on your hard drive. IE is so tied up in the innards of Windows that if you deleted it it'd likely destroy something vital.

[Cid]

I don't think it is cause it's part of the my computer navigation process. That's why Microsoft is being sued.... cause you can't uninstall it. At least that's my understanding

[RSL]

My IE is so screwed up, I was hoping to uninstall it and reinstall it from scratch. Oh well, I guess it can't be done.

And before you say anything, yes, I use Firebird as my browser 99% of the time, but there has been a time or two that I needed to use IE anyway.

[Dr Unne]

That's part of why they got sued, yeah.

How is your IE screwed up?

[RSL]

Well, here is the current problem that I am having. Maybe you know what to do. I sure don't.

I'm trying to pay to play Ragnarok Online. But I'm having problems with both browsers.

With Firebird, when I click the enter button, nothing happens. Nothing at all. I don't really know why, it's frustrating.

<img src="http://www.carrotmaster.com/images/RO/ROfirebird.png">

With IE I can't even get to that page. If I click the payment link after logging in, it brings up a "Page cannot be displayed" error. This happened to me when I signed up for the free trial as well. I ended up signing up on my parents computer, and it worked fine there (on IE, they don't have Firebird).

I've had other problems like that with IE before. Pages that I should be able to get to bring up a cannot be displayed error. I've tried everything I can think of. I also get a lot of errors that say something to the effect of "Your ActiveX settings do not allow this page to show properly" or something. However, I set everything to the default levels, or even to the minimum security, and it still doesn't work. I just think that my IE is all screwed up.

Ideally, I wouldn't have to even use IE, but for whatever reason, I can't click on that link in Firebird. It's probably something obvious or simple, but I'm not figuring it out.

[Dr Unne]

Do you use Windows Update often? What version of IE do you have? Some webpages are written sloppily / crappily with only IE in mind, and only with a specific version at that. The RO site isn't written very well at all. If worse comes to worse I think you can reinstall IE without reinstalling everything on your comptuer, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.asp and try it. Don't uninstall your old version, just install the new one over top of it.

[RSL]

Heh, that brings up another problem I've been having. I can't use Windows Update either. <a href="http://www.carrotmaster.com/images/admin.png">Here's what it says</a>.

The only thing with that is that I am the administrator account on this computer. I'm the ONLY account on this computer, and as far as I've been able to tell, there has to be at least one administrator account on Windows XP.

I should probably reformat. I've been considering it.

Anyway, I'll try your idea Unne and report back if it works.

EDIT: Oh, and I have IE 6.0 with SP1 installed. It's what came with the computer.

EDIT2: Yep, now I remember, I've tried this before. "Setup has detected a newer version of Internet Explorer already installed on this system. Setup cannot continue."

No choice to continue on anyway. It gives you an "ok" button and exits out of the installer. Oh well, I don't need to play RO that bad anyway. :cry:

[Dr Unne]

Windows creates a secret account called Administrator when you install it, I think. God only knows. Format and reinstall, yeah.

[Endless]

Use the XP powertoys (logon section) to have the Administrator account show up on the logon screen. Unne's right, XP asks you for an admin password, makes a "Administrator" account that it hides by default, then lets you make an account. When making it, you might have set it to normal user and not administrator.