IE8 removable from Win-7 | The Coffeehouse

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

Hadn't seen this before

http://www.aeroxp.org/2009/03/ie8-functionally-removable/

Hopefully that will be enough to satisfy those pesky EU and DOJ officials, but not give Opera the free ride it's looking for.

magicalclick

It still doesn't change the fact that IE8 is still bundled with OS and EU will use that as exploit to suck more mone out of MS every month. LOL

Dovella
Go Microsoft !!!!!!!

Im happy only for this situation

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

In reply to magicalclick

#Mar 5th @ 1:36 PM

It does allow the average user to download and install their preferred browser (e.g. FireFox) without needing to deal with anything more than a standard browser, and without MS being forced to bundle every competitors product with the O/S... yuck!

I think it's probably the most effective trade-off.

But how do they manage Windows Update, minus the ActiveX host ?? I guess the basic plumbing must lurk in the background for those sort of tasks.

wastingtimewithforums

In reply to elmer

#Mar 5th @ 1:55 PM

"But how do they manage Windows Update, minus the ActiveX host ?? I guess the basic plumbing must lurk in the background for those sort of tasks."

Easy answer: IE 8 doesn't get removed. The only thing that disappears is IEXPLORE.exe and all refences to it, but mshtml.dll and all the other stuff is still there.

*That means, that even if IE is "removed", you will still get updates for internet explorer through windows update, since the holes are in mshtml.dll and not in IEXPLORE.exe

Same mechanism existed in Win XP already:

In short: much ado about nothing

*Now I sense a danger here: If MS really goes down the "impress people" route (like they did with the new [and holey] UAC default setting) they could very well supress updates for internet explorer, if you "removed" IEXPLORE.exe! - to please the slashdot crowds:

"yawn yawn, I removed IE but I still get IE updates! BAH BAH BAH CRY CRY"

I don't think they will really do that (since a buggy mshtml.dll could wreak havok, no matter if IEXPLORE.exe is present or not) but given the new UAC policy - damn, everything is possible now.

MS is on charm offense, no matter the cost.

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

In reply to wastingtimewithforums

#Mar 5th @ 2:06 PM

In short: much ado about nothing

Other than a few billion $$ in EU fines, perhaps ??

wastingtimewithforums

In reply to elmer

#Mar 5th @ 2:18 PM

"Other than a few billion $$ in EU fines, perhaps ??"

Ah, I don't know. This feature was already present in XP SP1, and it seems that it didn't impress the EU that much.

By the way, I am greatly impressed how much publicity a re-introduction of a puny XP feature generates. WoW.

Most tech journalists are indeed bozos.

justth3fax

Here is a thought...Bill / MS is one of the worlds cash rich people / corporations in the known universe, right....

How about MS just stop selling in the EU...be done with the whole headache and let the EU figure out how to build a better OS.

Government intervention (any government - US, EU, whomever) in a market ultimately harms everyone involved. Politicians are a breed of liars and false promisers that only acheive their own goals of self enpowerment and enrichment.

I do think that MS has established a 'fair' product (it could be better) that the business world has standardized operations on, there is a gigantic technical support base to support it and has legitimately attempted (though failed) to acheive the visionary sight of its own research and development labs.

magicalclick

In reply to wastingtimewithforums

#Mar 5th @ 2:06 PM

LOL you just proved my point as it already happened. UE was still sucking money when such feature was introduced since XP.

stun

In reply to justth3fax

#Mar 5th @ 5:05 PM

Politicians are a breed of liars and false promisers that only acheive their own goals of self enpowerment and enrichment.

and have no understandings of any kind of technology.
Go around ask Politicians some very basic technology questions, and most of them will not be able to answer.

magicalclick

In reply to stun

#Mar 5th @ 9:41 PM

But, "Information Super High Way" was quoted from a precident. Watch the History of MS videos. Interestingly such quote still applies to online paradime.

kettch

In reply to wastingtimewithforums

#Mar 5th @ 2:06 PM

Vista built the update functionality into the OS. You don't have to get near a browser. Even going to the update site in a browser just redirects you to instructions on how to run updates from the control panel.

AndyC

In reply to elmer

#Mar 5th @ 1:55 PM

Windows Update doesn't use IE in Vista or 7, it's a stand alone application so that shouldn't be a problem.

joechung

In reply to AndyC

#Mar 6th @ 1:53 AM

Doesn't Windows Update use WinInet API's?

AndyC

In reply to joechung

#Mar 6th @ 2:31 AM

Probably, but they aren't part of iexplore.exe and wouldn't be removed by removing Internet Explorer. If they were, way too many applications would break horrendously.