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There's no doubt that Internet Explorer has been a prime target of attack for spyware merchants and other ill-intentioned goons. That's why many folks have turned to alternate browsers for their web surfing. If you are using another browser and don't use Internet Explorer anymore, there's a case to be made that you should remove it from your system. It is, after all, a potential security threat so, if you don't need it, why not get rid of it? Except, getting rid of IE is not that easy. In fact, with later versions of Windows there's no satisfactory way of removing it completely without risking crippling Windows itself. That hasn't stopped folks from trying to remove IE, however, and you can find several techniques documented on various web sites. Instead of removing IE I favor the simple and safer approach of disabling it. Sure, it may not provide the same degree of security as complete removal but that's a small price to pay compared to the cost of potentially de-stabilizing Windows. There are several disabling techniques but I suggest the method below as it's simple, easy to reverse and doesn't interfere with the operation of the Windows Update service. Furthermore it should work with any modern version of IE. Step 1. From IE select Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings.
Step 3. Type in "0.0.0.0" in the address box and "80" in the Port box. Don't type in the quote marks of course, just what's inside them.
Step 4. Click OK.
What you've done is set up a dummy proxy server 0.0.0.0 that goes nowhere. With these setting IE cannot make an HTML connection to the internet and vice versa. You have simply and effectively disabled IE.
There's no magic in the 0.0.0.0 address, any dead proxy address would work just as well. I've used that particular address to keep things simple.
If you ever need to re-enable Internet Explorer start it up and select Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings from the toolbar and un-check the box "Use a Proxy Server for your LAN ...”
If you really want to remove IE more completely then you can check out these resources but, as I said, I don't recommend it.
http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
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thank you
Great article. Helped me a lot. I did some more research and I also found this site. It's a really good supplement to this one.
life123.com/technology/internet/internet-explorer/how-do-i-disable-internet-explorer-on-a-pc.shtml
Disabling IE will make your Windows auto-updates and Windows Defender fail in getting updates.
true! but if you're doing it manually then its fine to disable IE
great solution thanks i try first blocking and raising the security and privacy but it just didn;t work at all downloads and webs were coming every minute i hated that but thanks to ya i got this fixed does firefox also has this ploblem later?
Just removing shortcuts won't completely solve the problem as IE can still be triggered from links and other applications.
Setting Default Programs to "non-Microsoft" or "Custom" (and removing access to IE) isn't fully effective either as, for example, Windows Update will open IE when you click on "get updates for other programs", regardless of setting another browser as your default.
However Comodo Firewall, for example, uses IE connection settings and won't update with a dummy proxy, so that's not an effective fix either.
Which just leaves removing IE itself, which as Gizmo writes is likely to destabilize your OS if done post-installation.
Unless someone knows better, it seems that using something like nLite to tweak your OS prior to installation is the only effective fix, and that is neither straightforward (for the average user) nor guaranteed free of side effects.
MS have us over a barrel...
Just change all your defaults to whatever you want. Disable what you don't want. How hard is that. It won't even be in your Internet Options.
PastorSteve
I tried this yesterday and IE stopped loading just as in the artice... Sadly so did my Opera. To get Opera back I had to enable IE again............ Ah well....
Frankly, i wouldn't use any of the retarded programs you are all complaining don't work anyways.
This tip disables the crap you all shouldn't be using anyways.
you're a star!
Thanks a lot - how easy! I could have thought about the same :)
I am using Vista Home Premium and FF ver 3.0, I have disabled IE and have not had a problem with any updates, as well, I use Avast and other anti-spyware programs, I love that IE does not come up for any links. However, if you want to view videos from like ABCnews.com, you will have to use IE, but who cares?
Or print selection/selected frame. Is there a FF add-on for that? (There are addons for just about every other function that other browsers do out of the box!) ;-)
Be warned !!!! if you disable IE a lot of software will not update.. I tried this and and found that my spyware, anti-virus and firewall all freaked out.. the irony is that a lot of the security software recommended by this site will report errors during updates if you disable IE.. in the interests of peoples sanity i would recommend removing this tip...
I second that, it seems over the top advice for most users. There are other (less drastic) steps you can take to help insure nobody uses IE, like removing shortcuts, hiding it's executable etc. Whether (with the release of IE8) you are going to gain anything from doing this is another matter..
... dump that piece of crap and go to Firefox. Al problems gone..
By the way this dude and his advice on putting a proxy server in place is so you CAN use Firefox and block that piece of crap, any version I.E.
I just removed from add/remove programs then add/remove components and removed I.E. completely as well as their piece of crap Outlook and put in Firefox's software.
No more problems..
I need to download Adobe Photoshop, and to complete this install I had to disable IE. After I disabled the IE, still Adobe Photoshop is not installing properly. This is what's written when the Setup stops:
Installation cannot continue until the following applications are closed:
-Internet Explorer
Please close the application(s) listed above and click "Try Again" to continue the installation. Click Cancel to exit Setup.
Please help!
Do people actually need to disable IE8? Unlike IE7, it is as secure (if not more so) than most 3rd party browsers (for now at least).
That's what MS and its sycophants have said about every release of IE.
lol sorry mate but Any version of IE is bloatware and so riddled with bugs its just not worth using.. period.
firefox among others are way more secure
I need to download Adobe Photoshop, and to complete this install I had to disable IE.After I disabled the IE, sitll Adobe Photoshop is not installing properly. This is what's written when the Setup stops:
Installation cannot continue until the following applications are closed:
-Internet Explorer
Please close the application(s) listed above and click "Try Again" to continue the installation. Click Cancel to exit Setup.
Please help!
If you do this any program that you have on your computer (such as MSN/Windows Live Messenger) that relies on Internet Explorer for interenect access will no longer work. Basically these programs share the same settings, by entering 0.0.0.0 as a proxy, none of these programs can now connect (this is simply because IE is installed by default and it's the simplist way for other programs to connect to the internet).
Your best option would probablly to be just setting Firefox/Opera/Safari etc to your default browser and then remove the IE shortcut from the start menu to stop people from using it.
HAVE KIDS... HAVE AOL Guardian. I need to disable IE so they can't 'go around" the AOL guardian access. Will the above work? Any other options? AOL is a pain in many ways, but has a GREAT guardian program to keep my kiddos safe.
Why not just trust you kids?
I did this to IE and now Quux Player will not stream any radio stations. In fact, I was listening to the radio and it cut off after I closed IE, and I got 'connection failed' on all stations I tried to get. I enabled the IE connection again, and the stations started streaming again. How strange! Big brother at work behind the scenes!
if IE is disabled in this, my msn (windows live messenger) can't connect it says (more people have the same problem above^). Is there a way of having IE disabled this way but not disabling msn as a result? like by connecting through firefox instead or something like that?
If you use a dialup connection, you have to look under Internet Options > Connections > Settings. If you use LAN Settings, IE will ignore the proxy and still connect to the Internet. But it still works if you set the dummy address under the proxy settings for dialup connections in "Settings".
You're a genius. Thanks for the manipulation technique.
:
StoneCuban
IT IS REALLY GOOD ONE..!!!!!
use linux guys worth every minute and $$
Isn't linux a freeware?? so no $$ involved
when i go into my IE folder there is no tools option. no connections and no LAN settings, yet its the source of the spyware on my computer, i cant remove the spyware until IE is disabled, what do i do
Used proxy setting 0.0.0.0 to disable IE, unfortunately disabled google chrome as well. Guess I will just have to live with IE enabled but never used.
Excellent! Two down for one shot.
did not work. bad.
( the: 0.0.0.0 ) CAUSED WAAAAAY TOOOO MANY PROBLEMS,..... DON'T FORGET TO SET A RESTORE DATE!!
GRRRRRRRRRRRR another piece of crap just popped up. I'll never be saying that again now that Internet Explorer is gone forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Use IEiradicator it works. And Thank you!
My computer crashed (what a shock and dismay that such crap is sold to the public!) after restoring everything IE come up with AOL flyshit all over everything. When I first obtained the computer AOL was my only available internet access (via long distance). I have since canceled my AOL account and uninstalled AOL. Now I cannot find AOL to uninstall and I fear that it is hard wired into IE? How do I remove, get rid of, disable, delete, trash, KILL the AOL!
Thanks for your help.
Post to the forum.
Getting rid of IE is a wonderful idea and I used a commercial Program called XP Lite to do it...then I had to reinstall it because I rudely discovered that there are a lot of company invoicing websites that won't work with any browser other than Internet Explorer, so no IE = no paycheck. That is literally all it is used for.
so how can i use msn with no ie i am now using firefox
use emesene.
when i disable ie i cant go on windows live messanger someone pls help
Yes, but this is a bonus isn't it?
Ok so how do i enable internet explorer?
After I disabled IE, I can still get MSN, but not Yahoo Messenger
You can disable Internet access, by adding a dummy DNS server in your TCP/IP settings under DNS. 1.1.1.1 You'll still be able to access the INTRANET from this PC, for instance a server or other pc/printer.
Thanks. I think my IE has some kind of virus because IE windows kept popping open despite performing AVG and Norton security scans, and Microsoft says I am up to date with updates. So I just wanted to disable the damn thing. So far so good...
Internet Explorer is the most standard and popular connection for applications. If you disable/remove it, these applications will have no way of connecting to the Internet (yes there is a way but the application isn't smart enough to figure that out itself). I would recommend simply changing your default browser to something else. After all if iexplore.exe isn't started, it can't really do anything to your computer, can it? Plus, this proxy method will affect other browsers as well because they seem to tend to use the iexplore.exe method too.
Louie
but sure if other programs use iexplore.exe then it is started isn't it even if you don't literally go and open up IE
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