Thanks for stopping by, and welcome to AeroXperience. ~Bryant

Thanks exclusively and entirely to efforts between Chris Holmes and me, we discovered that Internet Explorer 8 can be removed from at least Windows 7 build 7048, which is a good sign for regulatory overlords in the EU and in the States. Given that this change doesn’t exist in Beta 1, the odds that this change will persist through to RC are quite high. Don’t believe this can be done? Well, how about a Windows Features dialog below for proof?

There is a catch: For now, this only seems to wipe the actual executable running Internet Explorer 8 (iexplore.exe), but given that many of the most vocal proponents of choice were just looking for an option to functionally remove IE8, this might’ve been the only way to do it without killing the rest of Windows. In addition, this actually takes two reboots and a configuration step to complete, so there’s definitely something going on behind the scenes (likely a remapping of where IE-related functions can be found for other elements in Windows so that Windows doesn’t complain about IE’s nonexistence).

You can catch the steps, as well as final screenshots of the somewhat-obliterated product, after the break.

Here are some kindly-supplied screens (courtesy of Chris) and steps while we worked through to make sure this is doable:

1. Enter the Control Panel and look at “All Control Panel Options”
2. Click “Programs and Features”
3. In the left sidebar, click “Turn Windows Features On or Off” (you will be thrown a UAC prompt if you elevated UAC)
4. Wait for the list to load.
5. Look for Internet Explorer 8 in the list and uncheck it.
6. Click OK. You will see a prompt notifying you of a reboot.
7. The machine will reboot once, configure things, and reboot again.

Upon completing the second reboot, you will notice that Internet Explorer 8’s components are actually still in Windows. The major changes will be that IE8 will be missing from “Set Program Defaults,” Windows won’t complain about IE8 being missing, and iexplore.exe will no longer exist underneath the Internet Explorer directory even though the directory and every IE8 dependency therein will still exist. Feel free to examine the shots below, provided by Chris.

Update: image links fixed.