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" Imagine if someone released a free product called "Windows Light" that was just like M$ Windows but faster and hassle free."

If you ever find you simply must use Windows again, for any purpose, allow me to recommend Kerio Personal Firewall instead of ZA, and also the fine products of LitePC, to remove the spyware that's included in Windows by MicroSoft.

I generally wait until SP1 is out to try a new MS OS.

I wait until Litepc can prevent IE, mshtml, etc. from being installed.

MicroSoft has never offered anything worth the price of having that pile of bugs and security holes installed.

I see this as MS being in the back seat on this one. Sort of like PNG for everyone else. Late to the party and you don't get any cake.

you want maximum security on your windows box?
go to download the software and uninstall outlook express and internet explorer.

Ok, for real (assuming Windows) - Zone Alarm, Norton A/V, Firebird, Thunderbird.

You might want to investigate http://www.litepc.com as they have finally! released a version for Windows 2000/XP (It removes IE, OE, Media Player and all sorts of other icky-ness) Haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising.

It's irritating the way the world is enslaved to such an awful spyware-magnet standards-flouting browser as MS Internet Explorer.

Microsoft declared IE6 SP1 as the last standalone browser for lame-ass reasons. The truth is, they're only truly integrating IE into the next Windows Operating System for the first time, to prove their 'point' in the anti-trust case that they couldn't remove the browser from the OS.

If IE really was such an integral part of the current slew of windows versions, how come it takes ridiculously long to load when you enter a URL into the address bar of an explorer window, and that the people at LitePC was able to remove IE from the Windows operating system?

Bunch of liars. Guys, help educate everyone and have people switch to either Mozilla or Opera -> Makes Windows boxes more secure and gets rid of the need to buy those stupid superflous pop-up killers. (you can pick up viruses or spyware just by surfing a maliciously coded website and hitting the wrong button)

None of my family and friends use IE anymore after I educated them about the dangers of IE.

to remove IE from Windows LitePC

I find it rather interesting that nobody has yet mentioned litePC and their EOS product - they got Windows ME down to less than 32MB _with_ Internet Explorer. They also make 98lite, which lets you easily install stripped down, but fully functional builds of Win98 and ME. I hear ME is actually pretty good after "liteing" it. XPlite is still in progress.

Apparently there are other folks that do this for Win98 and WinME as well. They provide some good arguments (marketing, that is :) for why this is better than WinCE.

The litepc folks also have utility called 98lite professional that removes all web integration from Win98 - just to show it was doable (at about the time MS said it couldn't be done)

Apparently there are other folks that do this for Win98 and WinME as well. They provide some good arguments (marketing, that is :) for why this is better than WinCE.

The litepc folks also have utility called 98lite professional that removes all web integration from Win98 - just to show it was doable (at about the time MS said it couldn't be done)

Apparently there are other folks that do this for Win98 and WinME as well. They provide some good arguments (marketing, that is :) for why this is better than WinCE.

The litepc folks also have utility called 98lite professional that removes all web integration from Win98 - just to show it was doable (at about the time MS said it couldn't be done)

all Windows customers have IE

I can't wait til this is done, as I use 98lite for the pentium 233 here at work.

Speedy goodness, and I feel a bit better about the saftey of my midget porn.

Does this have anything to do with SP4? I don't know. I just wonder what SP4 will break.

My laptop has Windows 95. Besides, I'd need a copy of the OSR2 shell, and I just know 5.5SP2 would find it's way back on when it gets handed off again...

"Windows 95 - Where is 95lite?":
You can use IEradicator to remove Internet Explorer and desktop integration from Windows 95!

IEradicator - the Internet Explorer Hitman!
... surgically remove Internet Explorer versions 3 through 6.0 from Windows 95, Windows 98, ... claiming back 30+MB of closet space.

My laptop has Windows 95. Besides, I'd need a copy of the OSR2 shell, and I just know 5.5SP2 would find it's way back on when it gets handed off again...

"Windows 95 - Where is 95lite?":
You can use IEradicator to remove Internet Explorer and desktop integration from Windows 95!

IEradicator - the Internet Explorer Hitman!
... surgically remove Internet Explorer versions 3 through 6.0 from Windows 95, Windows 98, ... claiming back 30+MB of closet space.

Try IEradicator.

Absolute baloney from a computer newbie using his first XP box. Windows 9x had many blue screens of death, and they were more commonly seen there than on NT. The quote in grandparent's sig is actually one that appeared in many blue screens of death.

... the folks at litepc.com offer small Win98 installations for flash cards, too.

Cheers

What if I can't stand either MSN Exploder *OR* the Yahoo browser? And what if I'm running Linux? And what if I already use Mozilla and can't get to the website to register even on my Win98 partition because I used 98lite to rip out IE?

It's not a major invasion of privacy, just an annoying pain in the ass as they constantly harrass you to install it when you don't want to/can't/whatever.

I'm using mozilla with the internet explorer skin. It works great, though there's a little hack you have to do to get the home button back into the main toolbar.

Mozilla is a better browser than i.e. in a lot of ways (tabs, standards compliance, etc.), but the big one for me is that i.e. is essentially an ad delivery systerm. So there's not much we can do to selectively block cookies, or graphics from specific servers, or pop-ups, etc. And I don't like the prospect of being at the mercy of unscrupulous companies who wish to make changes without my knowledge or consent. (Actually, what I'd really like is a way to get rid of i.e. entirely on w2k/xp.)

That explains mozilla, but why the i.e. skin? Well, the default mozilla skins are not exactly beautiful. And my wife is highly resistant to change of any kind when it comes to her computer, and with the i.e. skin I was able to switch her w2k machine to mozilla without even a word of protest. Of course, at this point she's so used to tabbed browsing and the pop-up blocker that she wouldn't switch back anyway. And me, I don't have to worry about some exploit using i.e. to take her computer down.

Actually, I even use the i.e. skin on my linux box. Just for the perverse fun of it, I guess. I also have a nice wallpaper from w2k of a diver against a blue sky. It's very spiffy, though naturally I GIMPed out the little windows logo first :-).

IERADICATOR - Die FOUL IE!!!

Seriously, check it out!

Actually you can remove it. You just have to pay another company to do it. Ok, they do have some free ones available, but still...

And once you remove it, some of the other (3rd party) applications that rely on the IE DLLs will go kaput.

s/pain/impossible

Not at all. I have a fully functional system at home running win98 with no trace of mshtml, totally invulnerable to exploits that rely on ActiveX (which is the vast majority of exploits that affect 98.) You can do the same thing with ME, the easy way is here. NT based systems are harder, but it's possible to achieve most of these improvements there as well, elsewhere on the same site you'll see he's still putting the finishing touches on a similar product for XP.

The APIs are moving to ActiveX (cf .NET),

Yes they are, an excellent reason to step up the pace on eliminating MS from any environment where security is important.

I don't know that you could remove it even on Win 3.1

Win 3.1 didn't include any of this, that's a very bad memory or some FUD, depending on your internal state when you wrote it. Some of the earliest versions could be run on 3.1, but that required installing Iexplore updates, it wasn't on the system by default.

Not really. All ActiveX is is a codification of C++ virtual tables and object instatiation into a language independent standard. That's it. It's all in how you use it.

Not quite, that's COM, ActiveX is how COM is made available to arbitrary code, as from a webpage or an email opened using MS tools, which as a rule don't just neglect to give the user proper warning before executing proper code, they typically give no warning at all. Click on a URL or just an email header in Outlook and you can run code without knowing you are doing so. This is a fundamental architectural flaw.

For 2000, pre SP2

For 9x boxes

For 2000, pre SP2

For 9x boxes

Yeah, I'm sure the government would sure shut these guys down immediately.

From the folks who make 98 lite. According to the site, it does not work for XP or 2000 SP2 or later.

But by the time that happens, Windows 2000/XP Lite will be out. These are the people who make 98lite.

The above is for the benefit of those who will not have migrated from Windows by then.

A great free tool for uninstalling IE (3-6) from Windows (95, 98, 98SE, ME, & 2000 SR1) is IEradicator which can be found at:

"http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html"

It's a nice tool to have in the troubleshooting bag, especially in the IS dept. of a university where all of the students have laptops. Our helpdesk people are extremely happy with it.

It doesn't work on Windows 2000 SR2 or XP because of System File Protection, but you really can't beat it for the price! (unless you install Linux, which has no nasty IE in the first place)

Congratulations and thanks to Mozilla for the great browser!!

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A great free tool for uninstalling IE (3-6) from Windows (95, 98, 98SE, ME, & 2000 SR1) is IEradicator which can be found at:

"http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html"

It's a nice tool to have in the troubleshooting bag, especially in the IS dept. of a university where all of the students have laptops. Our helpdesk people are extremely happy with it.

It doesn't work on Windows 2000 SR2 or XP because of System File Protection, but you really can't beat it for the price! (unless you install Linux, which has no nasty IE in the first place)

Congratulations and thanks to Mozilla for the great browser!!

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