Removal of Internet Explorer

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Internet Explorer removal has changed over its version history, but the nature of many of its upgrades and installation methods has been source of public interest. The first version to be included was version 2 with Windows 95 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.^[1]

However, Internet Explorer 4 created a controversy with its shell integration with Windows Explorer, and with later versions removal (or inability to do so) became more complicated. The idea of removing Internet Explorer from a Microsoft Windows operating system was proposed during the United States v. Microsoft case. Later, some security advocates took up the idea as a way to protect Windows systems from attack via IE vulnerabilities. By the release of Internet Explorer 7, some of the shell integration began being reduced, such as changing ActiveX hosting and a different look than Windows Explorer.

As of build 7048 of Windows 7, Microsoft added the ability to safely remove Internet Explorer 8 from Windows.^[2] Microsoft does not allow the dependencies to be removed through this process, but the Internet Explorer executable (iexplore.exe) is removed without harming any other Windows components.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Vulnerabilities 3 Removing 4 Conflicts 5 References

[edit] Overview

While a major upgrade of Internet Explorer can be uninstalled in a traditional way if the user has saved the original application files for uninstallation, the matter of uninstalling the version of the browser that has shipped with an operating system remains a controversial one.

The idea of removing a stock install of Internet Explorer from a Windows system was proposed during the United States v. Microsoft case. Some} felt that users should have the right to uninstall Internet Explorer freely just like any other application software. One of Microsoft's arguments during the trial was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability.

The Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks demonstrated that Windows 98 could in fact run with Internet Explorer removed.^[3] Brooks went on to develop software designed to customize Windows versions by removing "undesired components", which is known as 98lite. He later created XPLite to support NT based operating systems. Both of these pieces of software can remove IE after the installation of the operating system.

There are methods for removing IE from a copy of the Windows install disc so it never touches the user's hard drive. A method developed by Fred Vorck^[4] involves the manual removal of IE from installation discs. His process has been automated as a feature of HFSLIP. nLite and HFSLIP are automated programs that allow users to exclude IE and many other Windows components from installation as desired. In some older versions of Windows and in Windows Fundamentals there is an option to install Internet Explorer.

Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Some applications that depend on libraries installed by IE may fail to function, or have unexpected behaviors. Intuit's Quicken is a typical example, which depends heavily upon the HTML rendering components installed by the browser. The Windows help and support system will also not function due to the heavy reliance on HTML help files and components of IE. In versions of Windows before Vista, it is also not possible to run Microsoft's Windows Update or Microsoft Update with any other browser due to the service's implementation of an ActiveX control, which no other browser supports. In Windows Vista, Windows Update is implemented as a Control Panel applet.

[edit] Vulnerabilities

Simply installing and using another browser does not prevent third party programs and core operating system components from using IE libraries. Thus, a user who does not use IE to browse the Web can still be targeted by attacks against vulnerabilities in these libraries—for instance, via Outlook Express or the Windows Help subsystem. However, removing the IE libraries will cause these programs, and other software which depends upon them, to cease functioning or even to crash the system.

[edit] Removing

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 name for the Web-browsing and HTML-displaying 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.

It is possible to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 95 after installing,^[5][6] as well as before install time.^[7] Removing Internet Explorer from Windows 2000,^[8] Windows XP and Windows Server 2003^[9][10] is also possible at installation time.

In contrast, some programmers and security writers have held that it is possible to have a useful and working Windows system with IE excised, that is, without Microsoft's implementation of web browsing and HTML viewing. These people include consultant Fred Vorck, who advocates that consumers should have the choice to remove "integrated" features of Microsoft Windows^[8] 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, amongst others;^[11] and Shane Brooks, who created 98lite and XPLite to remove and manage Windows components^[12] 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.^[13]

[edit] Conflicts

One of Microsoft's arguments during the United States v. Microsoft trial was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability. At least one commentator supports this argument, and notes that removing Internet Explorer will also disable Windows Update, leaving the user without vital security updates to the operating system.^[14] This overlooks the use of a 3rd party security update solution like the browser plugin WindizUpdate^[15] that can check for and perform updates without using Windows Update. As well, almost all Windows Updates can be downloaded from the Microsoft homepage directly.

When removing Internet Explorer prior to Windows installation using nLite, there is a distinction between removing Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer Core. If the latter is not removed, core components needed for displaying HTML help files and other operating system tasks are not removed, but the web browser is removed from the system.

While the dominant market position of Windows and Internet Explorer may cause these arguments to appear insubstantial, this arrangement is not unique to Windows. Safari, the default browser on Mac OS X, 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 WebKit framework, which is heavily integrated into the operating system and cannot be removed.^[16] However, certain other browsers available for use on the operating system are also built on WebKit. By contrast, the closed source Internet Explorer core can only be utilized by Internet Explorer, as well as Internet Explorer shells.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

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