[Osiris]

Uninstall Internet Explorer 8

Some users reported errors after installing the second beta of Internet Explorer 8. Steven Hodson over at Winextra was one of the first to point out display problems with elements not being in their right place on websites and a huge serious problem with the Share This plugin on websites which locks Internet Explorer 8 completely and raises memory usage to 300+ Megabytes.
Users who experience those problems would probably like to uninstall Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and go back to Internet Explorer 7. The following guide explains how to uninstall Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
Some Windows XP users might not be able to uninstall Internet Explorer 8. This happens to the users who installed a previous version of Internet Explorer 8 and later on the Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. A warning is issued to those users during installation of Internet Explorer 8 that the installation will become permanent.
They might still be able to use System Restore to downgrade again if a System Restore point is available that dates back prior to the installation of Internet Explorer 8.
Uninstalling Internet Explorer 8 in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

• From the Start menu, open Control Panel and click Add or Remove Programs
• Click Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and then click Remove.
• Your computer will be reverted to Internet Explorer 6 + previous IE6 security updates or Internet Explorer 7 + previous IE7 security updates depending on what you had before the upgrade.
• You can confirm that by clicking Help, then About Internet Explorer next time you launch Internet Explorer.
• Be sure to check for any new security updates.

Uninstalling Internet Explorer 8 in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

• From the Start menu, open Control Panel and click Programs
• Click Programs and Features and click View Installed Updates (located in the left side menu
• Select Windows Internet Explorer 8 and Uninstall
• Your machine will be reverted to IE7 + previous IE7 security updates
• You can confirm that by clicking Help, then clicking About Internet Explorer next time you launch Internet Explorer.
• Be sure to check for any new security updates.

[Mak213]

Well i can say that i dont see no 300K+ usage. Considering each tab has it own process now. Even with it being said like that all of them combined (Currently have 8 tabs open) i still barely reach the 200K mark.

High yes. But for each tab i close. It goes down. The highest tab being Flash based sites.

[Mobius]

thanks for posting the blog for uninstalling IE8, alot of people, and i do mean alot, have asked how to downgrade back to IE 6 or 7.

[Mak213]

Well if they are on Vista they cant go back to IE6. I can understand why they would want to go back to IE7 but IE6? Why would you want 10 year old browser running? It doesnt even have tabs. It is the worst security risk on the internet. More so than Windows 98 or ME.

[DoubleHelix]

In Windows XP, the Show Updates box has to be checked in Add/Remove Programs for Internet Explorer 8 to be displayed.

[Mobius]

Originally Posted by Mak213

Well if they are on Vista they cant go back to IE6. I can understand why they would want to go back to IE7 but IE6? Why would you want 10 year old browser running? It doesnt even have tabs. It is the worst security risk on the internet. More so than Windows 98 or ME.

as much as i agree with you, you have no idea how many people are still using IE6 and people still have to maintain sites that are compatible with IE6

[Mak213]

No they dont. They choose to maintain them. They could easily get their code up to Acid2 standard with IE8 being poised to be released this year. Then they could jsut falt out say right on their web site.

"Compatible with IE8, FF3 and Opera"

Force users to update. IF people think that sites will still work in IE6 why bother to update? Force them to get off the junk. Force them to get IE7 for now.

These webmasters only choose to have this shotty code on their sites. They should abandon it and force users to finally take some control over security of their system instead of leaving the security up to the web masters and then going and blaming them when they get infected.

[Trotter]

Mind if I take the devil's advocate role?

If a user has IE6 and comes to a site that is not coded to work properly in IE6, that user leaves and does not come back. That desciption fits the majority of the people on the web today, unfortunately. While I do agree that people should update/upgrade, I realize it ain't going to happen quickly, if at all.

Microsoft has soured me on the whole "forced obsolescence" idea, and the fact that a website must be recoded to work properly in IE8 just adds to that. It is bad enough that MS forced their standards up the world's *** through distributing IE with Windows... but now they are wanting to change that as well.

[Mak213]

But it isnt just Microsoft that has done it. Firefox is the same exact way. There are many sites that work in Firefox 2 but because Firefox 3 is now Acid2 Compliant those sites do not render correctly in Firefox 3 now. With the release of Firefox 3.1 they plan on stopping support for Firefox 2.

So in reailyt Firefox is worse cause they wont even support their older version yet Microsoft will. It is not wrong of Microsoft or anyone to try and force people to upgrade. They is why they release upgrades.

The open source community is even worse then Microsoft yet M$ gets the lashings all teh time. With any open source software if they fin dout you are using a outdated version the first words you hear them say is update then we can help.

So why is M$ bad cause they want their users to be up to date with the latest software and security? EVERYONE does it. OS X, Linux all of them do it. But only Microsoft gets the lashing and the bad name cause of it. Now why is that?

Seriously. Just look at this example. I was using Ubuntu 7.10 and tried to get help from their community. The very first thing that was said to me was to update to 8.04 before they would even consider trying to help. They wouldnt support their own product. Not until they forced me to upgrade. At that time it was running Firefox 3 Beta as its main browser which has flaws in it. But yet had to run it to get help.

So i dont see why everyone is sour at Microsoft for actually being the most forgiving when it comes to old software. They still support IE6, they are supporting XP till 2014. Show me 1 open source OS that will have support till that day with its current versions.

Plus this doesnt take into the effect the amount of extra coding that a site needs to have in order to kep it IE6 compatible. If sites were able to make their site pass some of hte web standards that should be implemented then we wouldnt have the coded mess on some sites that we see now.

But what do i know. I am defending Micrsofot from Ubuntu.

[Trotter]

The difference?

Firefox and Unbutu = free
Vista = $$$