Windows XP SP3 users can’t uninstall Internet Explorer 7
Jane Maliouta of Microsoft has stated in a blog post that Internet Explorer 7 users on Windows XP Service Pack 3 would not get the option to uninstall the browser and move back to Internet Explorer 6.
Users can however install XP Service Pack 3 with Internet Explorer 6 installed to keep that as their browser on the operating system.
Maliouta wrote in the post:
This behavior is by design and here is why. When we install IE7 on Windows XP SP2, we backup the existing IE6 files in an uninstall directory. Those IE6 files are the ones that shipped on XPSP2 plus all the security updates you’ve installed while using IE6. Windows XP SP3 contains a newer version of the Internet Explorer 6 files. If you have XPSP3 on your system and uninstall IE7, your system would revert to the backed up (older) version of the IE6 files rather than the newer XPSP3 version. You would end up in a mixed file state in Windows where most files would be the upgraded XPSP3, except for the IE6 files restored when uninstalling IE7. This state is not supported and is very bug prone. To ensure a reliable user experience, we prevent this broken state by disabling the ability to uninstall Internet Explorer 7.
Another important advice is that if the user has installed Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 on the machine, same thing would happen after installing the XP SP3. The user would not be able to uninstall the beta.
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Checkout: IE and Windows XP Service Pack 3
