Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
This question comes up a lot for various, an quite legitimate reasons. Internet Explorer, or "IE" is one of the biggest targets on the internet for virus writers, spyware writers and hackers. Naturally, once in a while due to their efforts, or for other reasons, IE breaks.
In which case a repair may be called for.
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Before we get into IE itself, though, most problems that look like they're caused by IE are not at all. As I mentioned, viruses and spyware may attack or use IE, but they don't necessarily damage it. The viruses and spyware are themselves the "damage". Poorly written add-ons can also manifest as problems within IE. In all these cases "fixing" IE won't help, you need to get at the root of the problem. My earlier article "IExplore.exe has generated an error." Now what? discusses many of the things to look at when you suspect, or experience, a problem in Internet Explorer.
So after all that, let's assume you've come to the conclusion that IE itself must be repaired.
We'll start with the first part of the question: How do you delete Internet Explorer? Answer: you don't. There are ways to disable parts of it, and even remove other parts of it, but the fact remains that Internet Explorer is a key part of Windows itself. It cannot be completely removed, and still have Windows work.
And in fact, that leads us to our first step in repairing Internet Explorer. Under Windows XP, run the System File Checker. This tool performs a check on all operating system components, including Internet Explorer, and repairs any that it finds are missing or damaged.
If that doesn't resolve the problem, or you're running a version of Windows that doesn't have the System File Checker, your next best option is a re-install. In fact, your best option in this case is to download and install the latest version of Internet Explorer from Microsoft's web site. This will repair your IE installation, or overwrite it with a fresh installation of the latest version.
Article C2366 - June 9, 2005 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
January 21, 2010 8:40 PM
my internet will not let me close it after i installed ie8
January 30, 2010 8:29 AM
I am running IE7 and I need to load IE6 instead. How do I do that?
March 1, 2010 2:54 PM
I have installed a Netgear wireless router, my laptop which is running windows 7 will not connect to the internet, I have connection but when I launch IE it errors out to IE can not display webpage. I am not sure what to do.
March 26, 2010 10:54 AM
Hi Leo,
I recently upgraded from IE7 to IE8 on my vista laptop. But then I started experiencing problems like very slow downloading and uploading speeds. So I uninstalled IE8 and went back to IE7. But my troubles still persist. I am now unable to download anything from the internet (including mozilla firefox and IE8, the download just stops occuring after initial 1-1.5MB). I can't watch any videos online and of late, I can't even upload any pictures bigger than 2MB on gmail. I checked my internet download speed, and its 18MBPS. I have kaspersky anti-virus which shows no virus problems at this time!
Any help is duely appreciated!
Thanks,
Garima.
April 30, 2010 11:57 AM
I have tried to delete my history off of internet explorer, with no success. I have tried to do it through using the tools section and reseting under the advanced tab. Can I uninstall IE and reload, and how do I save my favorite sites?