I want to remove Internet Explorer from my system

Thats what I though as well. I downloaded FireFox and made that my default ??? What ever it's called. LOL

I'm not sure about Windows 7 or 8, but it used to be that it was unsafe to remove IE from XP. I would still be leery about removing it from 7 or 8 unless you got real expert advice.

You can still have IE and use another browser. And get a good cleaner such as CCleaner to remove more of the unneeded files.

Microsoft has support pages for removing I.E. in various versions from 8 up and various flavors of Windows.

You can't completely remove it, but you can stop it being active or launching.

> I just wanted to remove Temporary Internet files

Settings -> Safety -> Delete Browsing History... Select all the items you want gone. And that includes cookies.


> Had a rough night of sleep.

Poor thing. You can open IE in private mode. Settings -> Safety -> InPrivate Browsing... This opens up IE in a mode that prevents cookies from being saved. You can change your default IExplore shortcut to read the command "iexplore.exe -private" and thus ensuring you are in private mode all the time. No cookie will EVER be saved on your hard disk.


> That's really annoying that I can't remove it completely.

IE comprises not only the application GUI - what is what users see and interact with - but also comprises a bunch of OS-level services to connect applications to the Internet.

You can remove the GUI part and make any other browser the default browser. That's documented. But you can't rip out its low-level services without affecting other apps that rely on those services being present.


> This is why I'm an Apple kind of guy.

Apple has its own HTTP/FTP/HTTS/... OS-level services. They are not marketed in the same way is all.


-cb

> I use In-Private Browsing quite a bit.

InPrivate browsing is the same with all browsers. Removing IE from your system is not going to solve the problem.

In that mode, the browser creates temporary storage that it uses as if it was your hard-disk. All read-write goes there. That storage is destroyed the moment you quit the application.

This means that an AW session cookie is preserved if you leave AW and go to another page, for example. It is preserved as long as the browser application is still running. Quit the app, then all those cookies are gone.

This means you can't open up an InPrivate browser and expect your browsing behavior is not going to get recorded. It simply means you won't leave a trace on THAT computer once you are done. InPrivate mode is meant for travelling people going to Internet cafés, it doesn't shield your browsing behavior from ad servers and stuff.

-cb

Billtrumpet25 said:

I use In-Private Browsing quite a bit. I had just come across a couple articles a while back that discussed the level of privacy Internet Explorer provides, with or without In-Private browsing, and this prompted my question.

Click to expand...

All Web browsers ever for all devices since the first public release of Netscape use cookies and a cache.

There's an AW FAQ: Emptying Your Browser's Cache, History, and Deleting Cookies

You can remove IE from windows

In Win XP, go to 'Add/Remove Programs', in Win 7, go to 'Program and Features', both of which are in the Control Panel.
On the side is 'Turn Windows features on or off'
(Aaaahhh!!! There it is!)
Here, you can uncheck 'Internet Explorer', 'OK', and no more IE browser.

Just use another browser. You can get your cookies and temp files from all of them. Good luck.