Uninstalling Internet Explorer... the Smart Way

Reader Michael writes: Recently I read an article (don't remember where) that having both Firefox and Internet Explorer on a computer makes it easier for hackers to get in because of some conflicting software or something like that. Is that true? In any case, I tried to uninstall IE; I went to the add/remove programs control panel and uninstalled it, but then when I clicked on a link, it still opened up IE! I deleted files with IE in the name in Windows but that didn't help either. How do I delete it?

To tackle your first question, indeed there is a recently-revealed security risk that effects users that have both Firefox 2 and IE installed together. The problem occurs when browsing with IE, not Firefox, but the actual vulnerability is due to a flaw with Firefox. This flaw has since been patched in Firefox 2.0.0.5, which you should have auto-installed by now. (Check Help > About for your version number; if it's older than 2.0.0.5, run Help > Check for Updates.) News.com has full details on the exploit.

That's the correct way to repair this flaw, not, in my mind, to try to uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows, which is a headache at best and problematic at worst. 

Believe it or not, IE is useful for running Windows Update and for the occasional website that just doesn't render properly in Firefox. (You can also use the IE Tab add-on for Firefox to help with these, but it isn't perfect, either.) I keep a copy of IE on my machine, just in case.

Removing IE from Windows isn't a piece of cake, as you've discovered by now. When you uninstalled it in the add/remove control panel, I expect you merely uninstalled the recently-released IE7, which just rolled you back to IE6.

Prior to Windows XP, you could physically remove IE from a computer (though it wasn't always easy), but with XP, to satisfy various antitrust rulings, Microsoft changed this while making it easy to "disable" IE without actually removing any of the files it uses. Why? Because all sorts of programs and OS functions use various pieces of IE. Deleting the files that comprise it, as you mentioned late in your message, is actually quite dangerous to your computer's stability.

If you want a minimal trace of IE on your machine, go into the Add or Remove Programs control panel and click on "Add/Remove Windows Components," on the left side of the screen. Scroll down to Internet Explorer and uncheck it. (It will say the option is 0KB in size; this is normal, since, as described above, you aren't deleting any actual files, just making them invisible as a web browsing system. See screenshot for how this looks.) After this, IE won't show up in any menus or on your desktop, and it won't ever launch as a web browser. (You can still use IE Tab if you need IE's rendering system. To reinstall IE, just reverse the process above and recheck the box.)

That said, I just leave IE intact and tell Firefox to be my default web browser. That option is in Firefox under Tools > Options > Main tab. At the bottom make sure the option "Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup" is checked. Frankly, I wouldn't bother worrying much about IE as long as you never have to actually use it...