Microsoft admits users will be able to turn off IE 8 in Windows 7
This is most certainly an interesting development.
What I would like to know is does this mean it is completely independent of the OS, e.g. no IE components used for the display of Explorer folders/structure, help files, etc. allowing for the complete uninstall of the browser and not just turning it off (with all the files still on your system).
Because that was always my concern when a browser it integrated to the OS exploit the browser, effectively exploit the OS.
So I guess we will have to wait and see more as this progresses, but it doesn't look good.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2232“Removing” here is somewhat of a loaded — and perhaps overzealous — word. Microsoft can easily remove the IE 8 browser from startup. But over the past few years, the company has integrated the guts of IE into the operating system.
As Bryant Zadegan explained on AeroXperience: “This [new IE 8 removal option] only seems to wipe the actual executable running Internet Explorer 8 (iexplore.exe), but given that many of the most vocal proponents of choice were just looking for an option to functionally remove IE8, this might’ve been the only way to do it without killing the rest of Windows.”
One Windows tester, who requested anonymity, emphasized that the new “remove IE 8″ option was primarily cosmetic. “(The Windows) Explorer and Internet Explorer use a ton of shared libraries because they both perform similar and intertwined actions,” so that makes complete removal of IE from Windows near impossible at this point, he said.
