Safe to remove Internet Explorer?

fireberd · 02 Sep 2020

I haven't used IE for a long time, I've used Edge and now the Chromium Edge and Firefox. Is it safe to remove IE?

Fabler2 · 02 Sep 2020

Some links in Outlook might not work if IE disabled. Have a look at this thread Removed IE and now I cannot open hyperlinks in Outlook 2010

f14tomcat · 02 Sep 2020

Except for the example Fabler2 gave, and possible others, it is safe to remove it from Installed Features. It can always be put back, until MS totally deprecates it. I've had it removed for well over a year with no ill effects. It's only some older legacy app that may depend on it, and they are getting more rare.

Safe to remove Internet Explorer?-2020-09-02_09h46_36.png

Callender · 02 Sep 2020

I totally removed it ages ago. I don't notice any issues but some sites might still require it.

Safe to remove Internet Explorer?-features.jpg

swarfega · 02 Sep 2020

If you use Steam for instance, the game shortcuts may break.

fireberd · 02 Sep 2020

Thanks. I'm going to remove it and see what happens. I had some compatibility with Edge and one site but Firefox works OK on that one.

Callender · 18 Sep 2020

Removed as in disabled via windows features is okay.

Uninstall it completely and you might get a problem with greyed out security zone settings:

Safe to remove Internet Explorer?-internet-properties.jpg

fireberd · 18 Sep 2020

I have it "disabled" and no issues since I did it two weeks ago.

Paul Black · 18 Sep 2020

Hello @fireberd,

I wouldn't try to uninstal it etc, I would just remove it from Installed Features. That way, if at any time in the future you need it, you can just initialise it again.

I hope this helps!

fireberd · 18 Sep 2020

That is what I did, Paul.