[MadanKnightRyukendo]

My grandparents use IE to browse the web on their PC. Last week, they upgraded to IE 7, and now they're having a whole list of problems. Nothing works in combination with Ctrl, they can't get a proper toolbar, they can't download anything (I've tried repeatedly to download Firefox, but nothing happens anytime I click on the download link), and when I tried to uninstall it, we get a stack of error messages about files not able to be moved. They can't do anything they used to be able to on IE 6, and it's to the point of aggravating me. This is just turning into another genuine Microsoft pile of crap. Any ideas on how to get this uninstalled and get the computer back to IE 6 short of having to restore totally from scratch?

(And we can't use the special uninstaller on Microsoft's website because it won't even let us run a License Verification)

[mduell]

Put Firefox onto their machine with a USB memory stick or external hard drive or CDR/DVDR.

FWIW IE7 works fine here. I don't use it often, but everything works when I do.

[ghporter]

Amazingly enough, IE7 is the best browser MS has released to date. Unamazingly, there are a ton of tweaks and fixes people have installed in their PCs to get IE6 to do what they want, and these tweaks and fixes goober IE7.

But go with mduell's suggestion; FF's installer is small enough for a decent-sized USB stick to handle (I've done it) and it's a better established browser at this point. And it takes almost zero learning to use, unlike IE7 which changes a number of paradigms used in IE6.

[robby818]

IE has deep hooks in Windows, by trying to uninstall IE7 you most likely have orphaned and damaged files that will cause instability in windows and will lead to crashes etc.

At this point, just do a re-install. Also, now is a good time to use drive imaging software. I like Norton Ghost. Make images of the drive and keep them so that you can restore to them. Make an image right after you install windows and another one after you install all of your standard programs. In the future you can do a complete restore in 10 minutes instead of spending the hours that will be needed to install windows, drivers, and programs. Also, i sometimes make drive images before i install questionable software.

For my Windows machines, I always set them up with two partitions. C has windows + programs. D has all my personal data (pictures, songs, documents). In windows, I relocate the "My Documents" folder to D: and in the future I will be saving all my stuff to the D drive as long as it is in the My Docs folder. In addition to personal data I also keep a copy of my latest drive image of the C partition on D, then I can restore the C partition from that image in like 10 minutes (faster than CD). Keeping your personal data on a sep. partition is good bec. if windows crashes and won't even boot it is a lot easier to locate the important stuff that you need to save.

[seanc]

Can't you just use Add/Remove programs and uninstall Windows Internet Explorer 7?

Like others have said, IE7 does work fine, although it's still not a good browser. My parents use Firefox. Sounds like your parents have hosed their pc somehow, try getting Adaware and doing a scan for spyware and make sure they have a good AV program like AVG, Norton/McAfee is poo.

[cgc]

I used the system restore feature to roll back my Windows XP to the state it was prior to installing IE7. Then, after a few months I actually reinstalled IE7. Not too bad actually.