I installed Internet Explorer 8 the day after its release on one of my home machines (“Old Faithful” – P4 2.5Ghz Processor with 1 gig of memory) to see what it could do.  I will say that it did everything the press release on it said I would get. It ran faster, took less of my resources from my pc, acted more secure, however, one of the major programs that I run on “Old Faithful” would not work.  It’s a proprietary program that allows me to monitor a number of my clients sites remotely 24/7.  The new IE8 security changes for some reason (still being investigated by the program developer) will not allow their program to run properly. So i have had to for the time being uninstall IE8, until we can get the situation resolved.  The uninstall is not difficult but since its a little different then the normal uninstall in windows I figured i would write out some simple directions for those who also have a need to uninstall……

The uninstall process

1) Go to the Microsoft site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700 (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/kb/957700)

    • In the middle of the page you will see an icon that says “Microsoft Fix It”, click on the icon.
    • You will see a File download box appear asking you if you want to Run – Save – Cancel a program called UninstallIE8.msi. If your on the machine that has IE8 just click Run. If your downloading it so that you can uninstall IE8 on a different machine click save and save the file to a USB or other Portable drive. The file is 115k which means it will fit on a floppy (If anyone even remembers what those are!)
    • Once you hit run on the download (or double click the file if you are using the saved file) you will see a window that says Internet Explorer – Security Warning and a Run and Don’t Run box. Click on Run – IE8 Uninstall message
    • The next window “Welcome to the Uninstall Internet Explorer 8 Wizard” select that you agree (If you didn’t agree then you probably wouldn’t be trying to do this.) and Next

IE8 Uninstall Wizard (http://www NULL.rj-diamond NULL.com/alex/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ie8uninstallwizard NULL.jpg)

    • The next window “Confirm Installation” (Again, if your didn’t want to do this would you be doing this?) click on Next.
    • The next window just show you the progress of the uninstall. Just wait….on my machine it took about 4 minutes to complete (Yes I know its a slow machine)IE8 doing Uninstall (http://www NULL.rj-diamond NULL.com/alex/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ie8doinguninstall NULL.jpg)
    • The next window you will see the “Uninstall Internet Explorer 8 has been processed” just click on close.
    • Finally you will be asked for a restart. Make sure your files are saved and closed and hit restart.  That’s it…

IE8 restart (http://www NULL.rj-diamond NULL.com/alex/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ie8restart NULL.jpg)