Mission ‘Uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 a.k.a. IE7’

Rohit Jain — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:13:34 GMT

Wow Internet Explorer 7!!! It is Awesome!!! Tabbed look, RSS feed viewer, Search box, Quick Tabs, Stronger Security, and lots of other things. I feel blessed.

Days passed & nights passed with blessings all around. But hold on what’s that? Is that a fly in my soup? IE7 doesn’t work with this software; IE7 doesn’t work with that software. Phew!!!

Googling…

Oh, it’s not the IE7; it’s the software which is not compatible with IE7. Seems like they need to release new versions. But until that happens, it seems that I need to adieu to IE7. I will miss you.

Anyways, let me uninstall the IE7. How do I do that? IE7 doesn’t have any uninstall option in the Start Menu entries. Oh, you are a dumbo Rohit. You need to go to Add/Remove Programs from Control Panel. Scrolling the big list…here it is Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. Let me click on it to get the Change/Remove button. Where is the button? Hey. Hello. Where are you? Let me see others in the list. They have the button. Why it’s not on the IE7?

Let me go the Microsoft way….Reboot the machine.

Restarted -> Logged in as Local Administrator to avoid permissions issues -> Went to Add/Remove Programs. Uff, It’s not there still. (God!!! Time to file a tcket to IT Helpdesk?)

Googling….

Oh, I need to select “Show updates” on the top of the Add/Remove dialog box. I selected it and then could see few updates under IE7. YES!!! They have the buttons. Seems like I have to uninstall the updates first to get the button on IE7 item. Smart concept!!!

I uninstalled the 2 updates. Rebooted the machine. Went to Add/Remove box. . Fainted! No buttons yet. Now what is the problem? Who took the button?

Googling….

Googling…..

GREAT!!! Long live Microsoft!!! It’s a known Bug.

Microsoft believes that after installing IE7 on your machine, if you get a Change/Remove button in the Add/Remove Dialog box for IE7, you are lucky. If you don’t, you are in the mass, just like me. Read this: KB923721. The page reads: “You cannot uninstall Windows Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2”. What a title! Though the page speaks about problems with IE 7 Beta 2 only, but it is true with the IE7 Final version too. I used the Final version only.

The suggested workaround: 7MB download cost on the network. . You need to download the Internet Explorer Uninstall Tool package.

The uninstaller uninstalls the IE7 and you get back your IE6. At last! (I am feeling better now. I will sleep well tonight. Thanks KB, thanks Microsoft.)

This is the first time I have come around a software which asks you to download the uninstaller separately. I wonder Microsoft didn’t release any patch for this too.

Lesson Learnt: When you download IE7 installer, make sure you download the IE7 Uninstall Tool too.

Cheers!

Rohit

Tools n Softwares

Mission ‘Uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 a.k.a. IE7’