I just downloaded Firefox and I was wondering if it was alright to go ahead and delete internet explorer, since I will be now using Firefox as my primary browser. Thanks for the help.
Answer:
IE is safe to uninstall through Add/Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components, but not to delete as you would a picture or song you don’t want any more. That would likely cause you a number of problems with Windows Explorer (your desktop), assuming Windows allows you to just get rid of it in the first place. I’m not entirely sure what uninstalling IE actually accomplishes, because Windows Help services, Windows Updates, and a few other Windows services will still bring up an IE browser window for web access. You can even still start it manually using Run -> iexplorer.exe. The only thing getting rid of it actually accomplishes is that all the IE icons disappear from the Desktop and the Start Menu. From a security standpoint uninstalling IE (without it actually going away) might open up your system to security vulnerabilities that IE service packs and updates plug. In the interest of caution I’d recommend leaving IE alone and just making your favorite browser your default, be it Firefox, Opera, Safari, Lynx, or whatever. You can’t really get rid of IE without moving to another OS, but you might prevent, inhibit, or complicate its ability to be patched by ‘uninstalling’ it.
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