How to Remove Internet Explorer

[Jaded_Goth]

Oddysey Wrote:Kye-U;

Not to bust your chops, my fine young friend, but did you notice that no one is listing the websites that are alleged to be infected? I mean, the news media comes right out and says "to become infected, one must visit a normally trustworthy site which has become infected", or words to that effect.

The sites who have had malicious code uploaded -in the scob case for example-were given anonimity by SANS and others because they were innocent of any wrong doing.

I *know* two sites that were affected.It would be grossly unfair to name them publicly,since the infection was dealt with and they should not lose visitors as a result of some crackpot's malicious assault.

[Jaded_Goth]

Actually,now might be an appropriate time to seek assistance with a matter which causes me certain consternation.

When I.E. is removed via add/remove programmes,it is still fully functional and remains ready to spring into action the moment you click on the Windows Update link.You can then browse,surf the web and so on.In other words,it is the living undead.

Now,M$ rehashed and re-released their I.E. cumulative update last week.It will not install on my OS-or at least,Windows Update keeps displaying it as an available critical update,though it IS in the catroot log....

O.K.,lets suppose I removed I.E. dll by dll,leaving no trace of it behind.I doubt there's any chance that any critical updates for I.E. would install after that.~so~

Here's the question:one of the patches fixes the mshta vulnerability.Surely,if Mozilla hit a page with a .hta exploit,potentially,the unpatched mshta could go ahead and activate the payload...Or am I totally missing something,here?

What I'm basically wondering is does the very act of removing a so-called "vulnerable app",leave a gaping hole in the system?(By virtue of the fact,security patches cannot be installed.I mean..they aren't exclusive,are they?An "I.E. patch" might overlap other,sequential vulnerabilities)

*y'know what...I've just been drinking way too much black coffee today.Even I don't know what's on my mind anymore.*

[a_stupid_box]

Jaded,

To put it simply, no. Let's say I'm using Windows 95, which has no inbedded ZIP capabilities. If I download a ZIP file with a virus, I'm unscathed as I lack the ability to use the file.

Same as if I were unable to run executables and DL'd an executable file with a virus.

What you're asking _is_ slightly different, but generally, without the specific software that's being exploited, you're safe. Yes, there are exceptions, but they're rare. Most things are meant to take advantage of specific software/hardware (not too many cross-OS virii).

[Jaded_Goth]

Thank you,sweetie.

[a_stupid_box]

oooohhhh, sweetie... one of the few positive things I've been called lately. Thankies, and you're welcome.

[nobbber]

thanks for this guide. I ended up replacing the iexplore.exe path with netscp.exe. I could not find a path after searching for url.dll so I left it alone. netscape now opens as planned. No more IE finally.

[nobbber]

nobbber Wrote:thanks for this guide. I ended up replacing the iexplore.exe path with netscp.exe. I could not find a path after searching for url.dll so I left it alone. netscape now opens as planned. No more IE finally.

ok i ditched NS and now im a die hard firefox user. I figured out how to completely prevent iexplore.exe from running under any circumstances in XP. Depite following Kye-U's guide iexplore.exe would still run after typing it in the run command box. to stop this from happening type gpedit.msc in the run box.

then under user configuration expand adminstrative templates
click on system
under Don't run specified windows applications right click properties
click enabled
click list of disallowed applications
type iexplore.exe
apply then hit ok and there you go.

hope this helps