MSFT Changes the Rules

[GTaudiophile]

Microsoft said it will include Internet Explorer, which is included with its operating system software, in the "Add/Remove programs" feature in Windows XP, scheduled for release this fall. Current versions of Windows do not allow users to remove the program.

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How can Explorer be completely removed from the OS? What would be left afterwards?

 

[IJump]

Explorer and Internet Explorer are two different things.

Internet Explorer is the Web Browser.

Explorer has been the foundation of the GUI Interface for the Operating System.

 

[Paulson]

Internet Explorer is different than windows explorer.

 

[pulpp]

that is instresting, explorer needs IE for webview, and countless software out there requires you to have IE installed, Windows Help and many other programs help needs IE to be installed as well. maybe what they meant is removing the browser part, but keeping the libraries needed to render html in explorer/help files/and other programs intact.

 

[xyion]

or maybe they are betting that nobody switches from IE.

- xyion

 

[Noriaki]

What a crock of poo Consider what pulpp said:

<< that is instresting, explorer needs IE for webview, and countless software out there requires you to have IE installed, Windows Help and many other programs help needs IE to be installed as well. maybe what they meant is removing the browser part, but keeping the libraries needed to render html in explorer/help files/and other programs intact. >>

Is exactly accurate. No one will remove IE. If they had of included this in Win98 then maybe....but now after ~3 years the industry is used to a standard PC having IE4+ on it, too many apps are dependant on that fact.

Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer are so tightly intertwined now (don't believe me, pop up a Windows Explorer window and up the top where it has &quot;My Documents&quot; or whatever directory your in, type a web URL and you'll get the webpage in the right pane) it's practically impossible to take them apart, reverting to a Windows Explorer that is unattached from IE would be like reverting to Win 95.

I suppose this is good for the tech folks that like to slim things down as much as possible, but for your average home user MS knows full well no one is removing IE.

 

[Pepsi90919]

If Netscape 6.1 final is any good ...

ooh ..

 

[Pretender]

It's called getting the DOJ off your ass. Quite cleverly too, as Noriaki mentioned.

I'm not quite sure how interwoven IE and WinExplorer are woven, if Windows Explorer is actually the same, or if extra code was written so that a virtual IE window is created in the main pane when you type in an address in Windows Explorer, but it's obvious that a lot of stuff now counts on IE, and it is quite a good browser (compared to Navigator, which last time I checked, was slowwwww and bloated), so the add/remove thing is just a tactic to be used later in court to justify not using monopolistic tactics.

 

[chiwawa626]

I bet what it does is just removes the IE shortcuts and stuff but still uses ie for active desktop and folder browsing...

 

[Noriaki]

Yeah Pretender also has a point, IE is simply a better browser than Netscape...but I ignored that fact

 

[BigToque]

Well, is it possible that when someone uninstalls IE, they could just disable the viewing of Web pages through explorer, and disable some other features, so that it looks like support for IE has been removed?