What to do with Internet Explorer if you never use it?

[Dirk41]

Hi everyone

I Ask this question after I read thread on an Italian forum.

A guy had I.E. Infected (, and it seems still infected because sometime pop ups appear with all browsers. Every try to remove this kind of adware seems failed.. I won't talk about that here ) and it is not the browser he usually uses

I read that a malicious sw need IE to infect all browsers ( if you think it is not right please tell me, but even if it was not correct , I am still interested in this question )

So I wonder ...

If you never use IE, is it not better to deactivate it ? ( as you know it can't be uninstalled like other sw using control panel ).

And this would prevent malwares to infect IE?

I mean every sw is potentially something that a malware can attack. So why keep IE?

Looking forward to hearing from you !

 

[Wave]

Getting rid of Internet Explorer won't protect the other browsers and an attacker doesn't need to compromise Internet Explorer to compromise another browser. Of course if you got rid of it then an attacker wouldn't be able to compromise it, because it wouldn't be there for it to be attacked...

You can always try to uninstall it if you don't like it/need it, but one day it could always come handy, you never know. I've been in situations where after all I've resorted to temporary IE usage (e.g. even for a few minutes only). However if I were you, I'd just leave it as is...

 

[Dirk41]

Thank you , well I should have said : yeah infecting IE is not the only way to infect the other browsers , but one way or not?

Anyway I have FF Chrome edge, why even explorer ?

 

[Wave]

Anyway I have FF Chrome edge, why even explorer ?

Maybe one day they will stop working for whatever reason and IE may still be working; you could then use IE to help you... Or maybe FF, Chrome and Edge all become compromised and the attacker didn't bother with IE since the usage has been reduced a lot... Who knows.

But one day there may be a reason for you to use it. But if you really don't want it, then just try to uninstall it/disable it.

 

[Dirk41]

Ok I ' ll keep it

Can't you simply reactive it if you need it ? Or an attacker could prevent you from doing it ?

 

[Wave]

Or an attacker could prevent you from doing it ?

They can prevent you from re-activating it if they know how too.

 

[Fritz]

I remember some niche applications that definitely needed IE for some reason (online tax forms, wholesale order portals, etc.)

Again, very niche. So in general, you could probably uninstall it and get away with it. On the other hand, you could just remove respective Links and leave it on the drive, shouldn't hurt at all. At least you won't have to jump through countless hoops in order to get it back whenever the need arises. Going by Murphy, this will happen exactly a day after you really do uninstall the friggin' thing.

 

[Dirk41]

Ok ok you convinced me thank you !

 

[jamescv7]

For sure its matter of coincidence; many threats are already flexible so no matter which browser you are using then it will be an instrument to connect and attack your system.

 

[Aura]

Just a friendly reminder that Internet Explorer cannot be uninstalled, but simply disabled (via the Turn On or Off Windows Features).

I don't use Internet Explorer a lot (only rarely when I need to check something on a specific website or else), but I don't see what I would gain by disabling it so I leave it be.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

You can turn it off, but some advanced users can tell you it goes online as it sees fit
even after you turn it off.
To fully disable it you have to block it's native exe there are 3 associated with IE
then using a 3rd party firewall block those same exe's
The 3 are:
iexplore.exe
ieinstal.exe
ielowutil.exe

 

[askmark]

I like to keep IE around so that when a web site doesn't appear to be working properly in Chrome or Firefox I have another browser to test the site with.

 

[DC47561]

As others have said - Internet Explorer: the best browser for downloading <insert browser name of choice here!>