Replacing IE on Windows 8.1 and 7 with new Microsoft EDGE

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Hi,

we currently have Windows 10, 8.1 and 7 in use.

We will replace 7. Slowly. But we’re keeping it right now due to software that runs only on 7.

My question is:

Can we replace IE on Windows 8.1 and 7 with the new Microsoft EDGE browser? We would like to have the same browser on all three Windows versions AND get completely rid of IE.

Is that possible? We are a bit concerned as IE so deeply programmed into 8.1 and 7.

(BTW, we could install Firefox, but I really don’t want to go into that discussion yet.)

Cheers

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SearchingForParadise wrote:
Can we replace IE on Windows 8.1 and 7 with the new Microsoft EDGE browser? We would like to have the same browser on all three Windows versions AND get completely rid of IE.

Is that possible?

Well, it’s half possible…

> Can we replace IE on Windows 8.1 and 7 with the new Microsoft EDGE browser?

Yes, absolutely. Just download & install Edge…

https://www.microsoft.com/edge

> We would like to … get completely rid of IE.

Hmmmm. As you reference in your post, IE was intentionally and remains to this day deeply embedded in the underlying Windows OS, so suggest you choose not to mess with it.

Instead, maybe try this:
1) import IE bookmarks into Edge,
2) open IE, go to Tools > Internet options > Programs (tab) > Default web browser, then uncheck box to “[] Tell me if Internet Explorer is not the default web browser”,
3) set browser defaults to Edge (either from within Edge or via Default Programs),
4) remove any menu items and desktop or taskbar shortcuts linking to IE, and replace them with Edge equivalents as required…

Hope this helps.

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SearchingForParadise wrote:

Can we replace IE on Windows 8.1 and 7 with the new Microsoft EDGE browser?

No. IE will stay installed as it is part of Windows OS.
You can download, install and USE ChrEdge instead of IE.

get completely rid of IE.

Can’t be done. You can disable IE (the browser) but then you may encounter some problems as IE is part of Windows OS.

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You can install another browser and make it your default, and never again use IE for browsing the WWW, but you cannot “replace” IE, because it remains an integral part of the OS and has hooks into other MS programs.  For example, settings in IE can affect Outlook.  There is a security setting in IE, “Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode.”  This needs to be unchecked if using Outlook, because:  if you have an email with a link to a https site, you can open that site OK, but if the next email has a link to a http site, that site may not open.  Effectively by switching from https tp http, you have “changed between secure and not secure mode”, and if that box is checked IE will want to warn you – except that it can’t if it is not actually running, but the setting is still effective.  There are other examples as well.

 

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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A long time ago, around the time of IE version 4, Microsoft hard-coded IE into Windows (as opposed to IE being a separate and distinct product), so that they could claim that IE was part of Windows. You see, they were giving IE away for free so as to put Netscape out of business. They didn’t want legal troubles from doing that, so they simply coded it into Windows, making it a part of the OS. I believe we were at Windows 3.1 when they did that.

That was a very long time ago, and I don’t know if they have ever removed IE from being part of Windows. Maybe they have. If they haven’t, then there is no way you can totally remove IE from your computer.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

That was a very long time ago, and I don’t know if they have ever removed IE from being part of Windows. Maybe they have. If they haven’t, then there is no way you can totally remove IE from your computer.

IE has still hooks in Windows OS and can’t be removed, just “disabled”.

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Actually, despite what most people are saying in this thread, it is possible to remove Internet Explorer from at least Windows 98/XP. There was a tool years ago that did it, and I ran XP for years without IE being present. A few things refuse to run, and the only version of Office that works without IE is Office 2000, but otherwise it was possible to run Windows without IE being integrated.

I don’t know if you can do this on Windows 7 or 8. I’d imagine it would be easier now as during the Windows 7 era people began avoiding IE more and more, so I would imagine there is less software that depends on it.

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Yes, it was possible to remove IE from Win2k Pro /XP Home and Pro along with the majority of the help files that were dependant on IE for viewing. One good thing about this was that it trimmed down the system folders along with some registry tweaking. I seem to remember the system being far more responsive with better performance once the bloatware, IE, helpfiles were removed and the hdd was defragged. Having a secondary cache hdd drive for the swapfile/pagefile and system temp files improved performance further on a shoestring budget.

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I have no doubt that it improved performance. I didn’t get to witness the programs personally when they were first released, but years ago I had VM running Windows 95, and the second you installed the IE Desktop, it slowed right down. I can only imagine how bad it was on Windows 98 when it launched.

It makes no sense to keep it embedded in the OS anymore. It’s just one more attack vector we don’t need.

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