Needless to say, whenever I login to my Windows desktop, every couple of weeks, I usually have a slew of updates waiting for me to install them, which I always dutifully install. That’s what updates are for, right ? Well, this is where the sad part of the story begins. I haven’t really had a problem with any MS updates till now but when Microsoft, in a recent update, pushed Internet Explorer 8 on my computer, all hell broke loose. A lot of web based applications I rely on daily started acting weird. Active-X Add-ons that I need for my work stopped working. IE 8 crashed a lot more and was much more buggy than IE 7 and that is saying something, considering that I hardly used IE 7 also . Which is why I decided to get rid of IE 8 once and for all and write this post so that it may benefit others who are in a similar situation. I use Windows Vista so some of the instructions might be Vista specific. The first step to getting rid of IE 8 is to open the control panel and click on the Program and Features applications.
This application will show you a list of all the programs installed on your machine and allow you to uninstall them. Except for one small problem ! As you can see, Internet Explorer 8 does not show up in the list of programs installed on your machine. Since, IE was installed by Microsoft as part of a system update, The Programs and Features application doesn’t consider it a normal user application. IE 8 shows up as an update installed on your computer. To get to that list, click on the “View Installed Updates” link in the left sidebar.
You will now see a list of all the updates that you’ve ever installed on your computer. If, like me, you’ve had your windows install for a long time, this will be one long list. Browse through the list and find the update which says Internet Explorer 8.
Select it, and click on “uninstall”. Follow the instructions, if any, and let the uninstaller take charge. Once the uninstall is complete, restart your computer and carry on with your IE 8 free life.
