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How do I completely remove any remains of Internet Explorer still left in Windows 11?

Smithfield
By Smithfield
in Windows
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Microsoft claims to have gotten rid of Internet Explorer, and yet, some of its rotting corpse is still left over! How do I completely remove all of its remains?

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Why? Is it causing issues? 

Some software still requires it as a dependency. 

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6 minutes ago, Smithfield said:

Microsoft claims to have gotten rid of Internet Explorer, and yet, some of its rotting corpse is still left over! How do I completely remove all of its remains?

Why?

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Network:

Spoiler 
                           ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ────── UniFi Security Gateway ─── UniFi Switch 8-60W ─┬─ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Veda (Proxmox Virtual Switch)
(500Mbps↑/500Mbps↓)                             UniFi CloudKey Gen2 (PoE) ─┴─ Veda (IPMI)           ╠═ Veda-NAS (HW Passthrough NIC)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Narrative (Asus USB 2.5G NIC)
║ ┌────── Closet ──────┐   ┌─────────────── Bedroom ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
╚═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╤═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Byarlant
   (PoE)                 │                        ╠═ Narrative (Cable Matters USB-PD 2.5G Ethernet Dongle)
                         │                        ╚═ Jesta Cannon*
                         │ ┌─────────────── Media Center ──────────────────────────────────┐
Notes:                   └─ UniFi Switch 8 ─────────┬─ UniFi Access Point nanoHD (PoE)
═══ is Multi-Gigabit                                ├─ Sony Playstation 4 
─── is Gigabit                                      ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed to Bedroom from Media Center       ├─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
** = cable passed from Media Center to Bedroom      └─ Work Laptop** (Startech USB-PD Dock)

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8 minutes ago, Smithfield said:

Microsoft claims to have gotten rid of Internet Explorer, and yet, some of its rotting corpse is still left over! How do I completely remove all of its remains?

Go to Programs and Features then to Turn Windows Features on or off. Uncheck internet explorer 

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Because I hate Internet Explorer and hate it as a mandatory component! It was terrible and needs to be surgically removed nao! Also, the only modern software that may still require IE integration is the Adobe Creative Cloud, which I will not be using in favor of way better alternatives that also support desktop Linux.

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Just now, billorwill said:

Go to Programs and Features then to Turn Windows Features on or off. Uncheck internet explorer 

That still leaves behind some garbage.

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Just now, Smithfield said:

Also, the only modern software that may still require IE integration is the Adobe Creative Cloud, which I will not be using in favor of way better alternatives that also support desktop Linux.

Some system components of Windows itself use IE as their rendering engine. So you can't remove it completely, unfortunately.

Remember to either quote or @mention others, so they are notified of your reply

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Just now, Smithfield said:

That still leaves behind some garbage.

It is completely disabled.  

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1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

Some system components of Windows itself use IE as their rendering engine. So you can't remove it completely, unfortunately.

Like what exactly? To my knowledge, it is only used as a fallback in case Edge and its WebView runtime is missing. Or at least now it is. This isn't Windows 98 where Internet Explorer was the OS.

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5 minutes ago, billorwill said:

It is completely disabled.  

And Windows is full of garbage anyway 🙂

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23 minutes ago, Smithfield said:

Microsoft claims to have gotten rid of Internet Explorer, and yet, some of its rotting corpse is still left over! How do I completely remove all of its remains?

Would you like your PC to explode?

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21 minutes ago, Zac_The_Dude said:

Would you like your PC to explode?

Yes please tell us how removing IE11 will make my pc explode and I’ll even record myself deleting IE11.

 

 

OP, AFAIK some of the help related BS runs with IE still. (Fun fact IE11 on windows 11 saved my ass couple of times trying to access ancient IPMI systems)

mY sYsTeM iS Not pErfoRmInG aS gOOd As I sAW oN yOuTuBe. WhA t IS a GoOd FaN CuRVe??!!? wHat aRe tEh GoOd OvERclok SeTTinGS FoR My CaRd??  HoW CaN I foRcE my GpU to uSe 1o0%? BuT WiLL i HaVE Bo0tllEnEcKs? RyZEN dOeS NoT peRfORm BetTer wItH HiGhER sPEED RaM!!! dId i WiN teH SiLiCON LotTerrY? yOu ShoUlD dEsHrOuD uR GPU. my SYstEm iS UNDerPerforMiNg iN WarzONE. can mY Pc Run WiNdOwS 11 ?? woUld BaKInG MY GRaPHics card fIX it? MultimETeR TeSTiNG!! aMd'S GpU DrIvErS aRe as goOD aS NviDia's YOU SHoUlD oVERCloCk yOUR ramS To 5000C18

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31 minutes ago, Levent said:

Yes please tell us how removing IE11 will make my pc explode and I’ll even record myself deleting IE11.

 

 

OP, AFAIK some of the help related BS runs with IE still. (Fun fact IE11 on windows 11 saved my ass couple of times trying to access ancient IPMI systems)

It's a joke. It won't, but deleting Internet Explorer should force you to remove main components from Windows, making the install useless. 

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1 hour ago, Smithfield said:

Because I hate Internet Explorer and hate it as a mandatory component! It was terrible and needs to be surgically removed nao!

It's part of the territory you walk by using Windows. There are some features you simply are not allowed to remove without corrupting various features of the Operating System. This has been an ongoing fight since 1994. 

 

If you want complete control of what is on or isn't on your operating system, use Linux. Otherwise, it's something you have to put up with. 

ask me about my homelab

on a personal quest convincing the general public to return to the glory that is 12" laptops.

cheap and easy cable management is my fetish.

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4 hours ago, Smithfield said:

Microsoft claims to have gotten rid of Internet Explorer, and yet, some of its rotting corpse is still left over! How do I completely remove all of its remains?

Oh, the only thing that is left is for legacy applications. Many of them, uses embedded IE to show content. These applications won't function properly without IE.

So, while Microsoft pushes devs to use WebView2 (Edge, Chromium), and auto-replace where they can with WebView2, sadly they are still stuck with IE being part of the OS. Maybe when Windows 12 will be released, this is where they cut it out, maybe. But the left over is sadly something we all have to live with.

 

Under Windows 10, you can get IE back, as it is the fallback web browser if Edge craps out. But that was removed under Windows 11. So you really only have left over components.

 

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I don't think you can completely remove IE from Windows. They are quite intertwined with each other. But you could disable some chunks of it.

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