Windows 7 Kill Switch For IE Confirmed — For More Apps, Too

CWmike writes "Microsoft has confirmed that users will be able to remove its IE8 browser, as well as several other integrated applications, from Windows 7. Jack Mayo, a group program manager on the Windows team, listed in a blog post the applications that can be switched off. They include Internet Explorer 8, Fax and Scan, handwriting recognition, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Gadget Platform, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Search, and XPS Viewer and Services. He explained that the files associated with those applications and features are not actually deleted from the hard drive. The public beta of Windows 7 does not include the ability to 'kill' said apps. But a pirated copy of Windows 7 Build 7048 includes the new removal options, and has been leaked on the Internet." (We mentioned the reported ability to turn off IE8 yesterday as well.)

Comments

Why not?

[John Hasler]

> He explained that the files associated with those applications and features are not
> actually deleted from the hard drive.

Why not?

Re:Why not?

[qoncept]

The article also mentions they can be reinstalled/reenabled without the installation disk. My guess is that genuinely is the reason. I remember Windows 95 randomly asking me to insert the installation disc when I was updating drivers or installing non-MS software, which was ridiculous.

Of course, its also possible the libraries are still being used (and loaded, and still eating up resources) for other things.

Re:Why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is the nightmare called windows side by side install.

So you uncheck the box it is 'uninstalled'.
Later on you decide 'wait a second I did want that' and check it back.

Now instead of popping the disk back in. It is magically there again.

Any application can take advantage/disadvantage of this. Basically you install it into the winsxs dir and it pretty much stays forever.

The only resource that will be consumed is disk space.

For example in vista telnet is not 'on the box by default' you go check the box and it installs it into the system32 dir. Where did it get that? The network was off, and i put no disk in. It did a hard link to the real file that lives in the winsxs dir. You can get this same sort of thing in linux using the ln. In windows not so easy but it can be done.

Re:Why not?

[Captain Spam]

The only alternative here is for Mozilla or another OS browser to reimplement mshtml.dll from scratch - a daunting task of questionable logic.

"Daunting" puts it lightly, apparently. WINE, for instance, attempts to reimplement mshtml.dll via the Gecko engine for all the things that use it for HTML rendering. Like, say, Steam. To date, I still don't think it's possible to complete a purchase or demo download from start to finish entirely within the Steam client under WINE/Crossover. You still need to start the purchase externally, enter Steam, and finish it there because they haven't fully reimplemented all the calls properly.

So, yes, it has been tried, and it isn't quite perfect yet.

Re:Why not?

[Chyeld]

Incorrect. Microsoft can't uninstall the RENDERING engine because they've done their damnest to hook it into everything in the system while obscuring how it's done to ensure no one can come along and rip it out and replace it.

My suggestion was, given they weren't suppose to do that and even got spanked for doing it, maybe they should stop trying to pull this crap and simply publish the API's that their rendering engine implements. And by publish, I don't mean the typical Microsoft BS of dumping out a specification that even they can't implement, but an actual honest to goodness "this does that, that does this" document.

If they did that, then regardless of the 'advisability' of the integration in the first place, you'd at least have the opportunity to replace the rendering engine with your own.