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Uninstall, Disable, Delete Internet Explorer 8 from Windows 7
A lot of Windows users out there dislike Internet Explorer enough that just using a different browser is not enough, they want it gone. Although there is not a way to completely uninstall it, let’s take a look at how to disable IE 8 in Windows 7 so you won’t have to deal with it anymore.

Click on the Start Menu and go to Control Panel and change the View by category to Large or Small icons then from the Control Panel list go into Programs and Features.

In the Programs and Features window click on the “Turn Windows features on or off” link on the left hand side.

The Windows Features screen opens up and here you want to uncheck the box next to Internet Explorer 8.

You will get a confirmation box when you uncheck it saying it may affect other Windows features. It will if you don’t have another browser installed but otherwise everything that usually opens in IE will open in your default browser.

After verifying you want to turn it off click OK.

You will get a progress notification while Windows turns off IE 8.

When everything is turned off you will need to restart your system.

After coming back from the restart you will notice Internet Explorer 8 is no longer there. Anything you had linked to IE will be associated with another browser if you have one installed. It will also no longer appear in the Set Default Programs section.

If you go to the Open With list in Explorer you will see a generic Internet Browser icon that will open up whatever is your default browser.

This doesn’t completely remove all traces of Internet Explorer 8 as other programs and processes rely on its rendering engine. This will definitely get it off your way when doing your daily computing tasks.

It takes some time for Internet Explorer 8 to open new tabs on my computer system even if the tab is a blank tab in the beginning. Observant users will notice the “Connecting” message in the tab when this is happening. This is really frustrating and one of the main reasons why Internet Explorer 8 is only used sporadically. Internet Explorer 8 does however provide information in its interface that make it possible to find out why the tabs are loading that slowly. These information can be looked at in the Tools > Manage Add-ons menu in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft not only lists the installed toolbars, plugins and add-ons but also their loading time. This loading time is added on top of the normal tab loading time in Internet Explorer. It is now easy with the tools at hand to analyze the toolbars and plugins that increase the tab and window loading time in Internet Explorer the most and find ways to deal with the situation.

A right-click on any toolbar or plugin in the add-on’s menu provides the option to disable it right away. Internet Explorer 8 will automatically search for related add-ons giving the user the choice to disable them as well. The loading time of some plugins and toolbars is not displayed in the manager. Disabling these can also have a positive effect on the tab and window loading times in Internet Explorer.

Accelerators is a new feature that Microsoft introduced in Internet Explorer 8. They allow users to launch web services more easily and can for example be used to view a selected location on a map or to write a new article on a website about a specific text found on another. The FriendFeed and Twitter Accelerators for Internet Explorer 8 allow users to post text and urls to those two popular online services.

Users need to run Internet Explorer 8 to install accelerators. The accelerators can be installed by clicking on the install links on the developer’s websites: Twitter Accelerator and FriendFeed Accelerator.

Internet Explorer will display an installation dialog. A click on the Add button will install the accelerator in the web browser.

Selecting text in Internet Explorer 8 will from then on display a small icon next to it. Clicking on the icon will display the default accelerators plus a submenu that is listing all installed accelerators in Internet Explorer 8.

It might be a good idea to add the Twitter and FriendFeed Accelerators to the list of default accelerators to be able to access them more conveniently. This can be done by clicking on the Manage Accelerators entry in the sub menu. A right-click on any accelerator in the manager gives the option to set it as a default accelerator.

We all have heard the news that the European Union made the “suggestion” that Microsoft should bundle additional web browsers with their upcoming operating system Windows 7 to make up for failings in the past and to embrace competition. Many users felt that this move was entirely unnecessary as users who wanted a new web browser were able to get one minutes after finishing the installation of the Windows operating system. The success of the Firefox web browser in European countries demonstrated as well that it was possible to compete with Internet Explorer without having to be supplied with an operating system.

While the intention might have been good the whole suggestion was clearly aiming for troubles. Some questions that came up where about the web browsers that should be supplied with the operating system. Who would pick the ones that would be supplied, who would make the decision to not supply a web browser and why.

It seems though that the suggestion has backfired as Microsoft announced that they will not ship Windows 7 with a version of Internet Explorer in the European Union which in turn means that the operating system will ship without web browser at all. Veteran Internet users might be reminded of times back then when web browsers were supplied on floppy disks or CDs and this is apparently going to happen in 2009 again. History repeats itself so to say, at least in the EU.

The browser-less versions, dubbed Windows 7 “E”, will be distributed in all members of the European Economic Area as well as Croatia and Switzerland. In addition, Microsoft will strip the browser from the Europe-only “N” versions of Windows 7, which also removes the Windows Media Player from the operating system and is the result of another move by Europe’s antitrust authorities.

“Microsoft will not offer for distribution in the European territory the Windows 7 product versions that contain IE, which are intended for distribution in the rest of the world,” Microsoft said in the memo. “This will apply to both OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 products.”

“To ensure that Microsoft is in compliance with European law, Microsoft will be releasing a separate version of Windows 7 for distribution in Europe that will not include Windows Internet Explorer,” the software maker said in the memo. “Microsoft will offer IE8 separately and free of charge and will make it easy and convenient for PC manufacturers to preinstall IE 8 on Windows 7 machines in Europe if they so choose. PC manufacturers may choose to install an alternative browser instead of IE 8, and has always been the case, they may install multiple browsers if they wish.”

There was not a way for Internet Explorer 7 users to log into two different Gmail (or Hotmail, Yahoo Mail…) accounts at the same time. Gmail can be replaced with any other cookie based web service that asks the user to login. The problem here is that the cookie storing the information about the login will be overwritten when the second login attempt is made. Internet Explorer 8 changes this behavior by introducing so called session cookies. A user wanting to log into an account a second time (or third, fourth..) could therefor start a new session in Internet Explorer 8 to do so. The new session would write a new cookie that would not interfere with the old cookies that have been written in other sessions.

A new Internet Explorer 8 session can be created from the Internet Explorer menu toolbar which might be hidden on your computer system. The fastest way to create a new session if the menu bar is not shown is to press the keyboard combination [Alt f] [i] [enter]. This will open a new Internet Explorer 8 window in a new session. Opening a new tab or window in contrast would share the cookies in Internet Explorer 8. It is furthermore possible to start a new session from the command line by launching iexplore.exe with the -nomerge parameter.

Internet Explorer 8 sessions are a very effective way of accessing multiple accounts at the same web service at once. Microsoft should think about placing that option more dominantly in Internet Explorer 8 as its current position will most likely not be noticed by many Internet Explorer users.

There is not any comparable option in the other Internet browsers yet. Firefox users can use the Gmail Account Manager to manage multiple Gmail accounts but there does not seem to be a feature available that would allow users to log into multiple accounts at all web services.