Removing IE core on XP

[ovctvct]

Has anyone tried to remove IE core via nlite, and, if yes, what happened?

[AlejHerrBar2k3]

I don't use nLite, so I never tried to get the IE core off XP. There's also XPLite, a product that customizes Windows XP in a way that IE don't be accessed at all by any application.*

* I don't actually know what can happen because, again, I don't use the aforementioned products.

[3155ffGd]

Been a long time since I last did that, but basically, you end up with a Windows XP without IE core.

It's only really viable on Volume License systems because OOBE depends on IE core and without OOBE, you can't activate. nLite even warns you of this if you try to remove IE core, if I remember correctly.

[gtgamer468]

Wouldn't it end up breaking Windows XP in the end since besides activation, File Explorer would break as well?

[MrBurgerKing]

I think IE v4 and up was integrated with the shell, so it probably would. Don't know for sure though.

[3155ffGd]

You have to do a lot to break Explorer. Explorer works generally fine without IE core, though you obviously will miss out on any IE-specific components (depending on how much you remove), i. e. image previews, folder warnings (the ones when you try to open C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINDOWS\system32), full-text search, etc.

[os2fan2]

fred Vorck did a fair bit of work removing IE from both W2K and WXP. Both XP and 2K can have IE removed from them.

You can remove a fair bit of IE from both Windows 2k/XP, and 98/ME using the LitePC and the XPLite programs. If you modify the 98 setup using the 98lite install, you end up with a version of windows that runs quite nicely in 16 MB ram. This is true even when you load IE as an application. But at that time, IE was rated as a security risk, and anything else was better. I mainly used opera at that time, before switching to firefox.

98 Explorer and notepad are linked to shell32, which is largely tied to IE, but it is possible to use the 95a version of these files.

When i did the remaster of the 98SE/ME/95 disk, one of the 'features' of this is to allow programs like 98Lite and 98toME to work without changing disks.

There were a number of alternate files that gave you the features that were unnecessarily tied into IE.

[TwilyDev]

Okay, I've tried removing IE core and here's the effects:
1. The OOBE is just instantly skips and you ended up with Administrator.
2. Windows is actually trying to add IE core back. But ended up with only "connection wizard" and there's nothing on it.





3. "Activate Windows" seems to be still working.



4.

Error loading IEDKCS32.DLL - The specified module could not be found.

5. Explorer thinks that "example.com" is a file download instead of actual webpage.

[AlphaBeta]

2. Windows is actually trying to add IE core back. But ended up with only "connection wizard" and there's nothing on it.

Doubt it's "trying" per se, it looks more like a leftover.