Remove IE8 From Windows 7 x64 SP1

[marcusj0015]

i have installed IE9, and ie8 is still sitting in my WinSxS, i have no plans to go back or EVER use IE8 again, how can i SAFELY remove it, to free up space

[MagicAndre1981]

run this command twice from an command prompt (cmd.exe) with adminrights:

FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-*8.*.mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

this should remove the IE8 files with the help of the command line.

Make a backup first.

[alvinkhorfire]

MagicAndre1981

Thank you once again for recommending this nifty tip. My questions are:

1. With IE 8 removed, will IE 9 continue to run fine without any problem? In other words, is IE 9 made to be independent of IE 8, without using any IE 8 files?

2. I am currently a slimmed-down Windows 7 SP1 with IE 9 slipstreamed by RT 7 Lite. Is its safe to use this command, without harming my system?

Thanks for the advice given.

[MagicAndre1981]

I never tried it. Make a complete backup first.

[marcusj0015]

well, IE9 is completely seperate from IE8, that's why IE9 is so much faster

did you look that up?

there are more packages i would like to remove, but that way seems a TRILLION times safer than manually deleting the old files

i get error code 0x80070005

Edited April 7, 2011 by marcusj0015

[ricktendo]

I also get the error, I think you may have to take ownership of the mum file (might also have to do it to a reg entry or two)

InstallWimTweak.exe can do this but it does all packages, not just IE8

If anybody knew exactly what InstallWimTweak.exe does it could possibly be done manually just for IE8 package

Edited April 7, 2011 by ricktendo64

[MagicAndre1981]

do you run it from a command prompt with admin rights?

[ricktendo]

Yes, UAC is always off

[marcusj0015]

i have disabled UAC also, and i right click run as admin cmd, before i entered the commands

[MagicAndre1981]

@Rick

do you have this InstallWimTweak somewhere?

[alvinkhorfire]

InstallWimTweak.exe can do this but it does all packages, not just IE8

If anybody knew exactly what InstallWimTweak.exe does it could possibly be done manually just for IE8 package

Do you mean installwimtweak by wnuku, used in vLite threads, such as Windows 7 Ultimate/Server 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1 Batch Removal?

Here is wnuku's reply in regards to the function of the installwimtweak.

hi,

yes, i created install wim tweak some time ago, and purpose of it was to enable removing some components of windows. And simply, only thing that install wim tweak is doing is changing registry entries inside hives in install.wim (sorry for misleading name of tool). Back in 2008, guides about removing components from vista/2008 had instructions how to do all those changes manually, but it was time consuming and could cause many errors when registry has been edited in wrong way. That's why i created this tool - to simplify this process. If you are curious what exactly my tool is doing, there are source codes posted here : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?app=forums&module=forums&section=findpost&pid=825130 .

Short answer, as far i can remember, install win tweak does not touch file security inside install wim. Hope it helps

Hope this helps, ricktendo64.

Edited April 8, 2011 by alvinkhorfire