So I was cleaning up my SO’s laptop to free up some hard disk space, and didn’t notice that in a certain section of the Windows clean-up wizard, you need to check the boxes next to the items you want to keep, not those you want to delete :smack:. This means I have no internet browser at all (posting this from work), and I don’t think we have the system disk to reinstall what was lost (IE, the games that come with Windows, and probably a few other things).
I tried System Restore, but as I hadn’t created a restore point (another lesson learned…), this was no use. I gather that it is possible to copy IE from another system on to a memory stick and load it on that way, but is there an easier way? Also, I don’t have e-mail access on that machine, if that should make a difference.
Sounds fine, but I don’t have a flash drive on me and I have a feeling that may not be possible - I think IT have a blanket block on “unknown” flash drives and such being connected. However, I can use this method on a friend’s computer. Just wondered if there was another way, to avoid this.
I’m not sure what’s really going on here. You can’t really uninstall all of IE from XP (not with a few mouse clicks, anyway). Do you mean you used the Desktop Cleanup Wizard and removed the IE icon from the desktop? That doesn’t uninstall it. You can still start IE from the Start menu or by typing iexplore.exe in the Run dialog.
I thin Cleophus has it. At a guess, you’ve only deleted the shortcut icon. You can still access Internet Explorer from the Start Menu, or by running iexplore.exe directly.
You cant delete IE6 from XP. Youre probably just missing the icons. Id just run the IE7 installer Fear Itself links to and run so youre back to IE7. It will create the icons for you.
If he can’t launch a web browser, he can’t click a link in a message board thread. That said, as others have pointed out, you can’t really uninstall IE from XP without a great deal of magic juju; a cleanup wizard wouldn’t do it.
From the Start menu, select “Run”, then type in “iexplore” (without the quotes) and press Enter. If that doesn’t work, try opening Windows Explorer (just open any folder), type a URL into the Address bar, and press “Go”. It should launch a browser window.
Once you have a browser window open, you can download the install file to replace your icons. Good luck, and keep us posted!
Thanks - I thought I’d made it clear enough, but apparently not!
I think you’re all right about not having deleted it completely, but I don’t think it’s quite as simple as just having deleted the shortcut. For example, clicking on the “Internet” at the very top of the Start Menu merely brings up the “Internet Options” window, not a session of IE. I haven’t played with it very hard before coming here for help for fear of breaking something else, and also because it would deny cleverer dopers the opportunity of laughing at my ineptitude.
I’ll go home now and try the “run iexplore” and/or Windows Explorer suggestions - if I post here again in the next 15 hours, it’s fixed!
Now, how do I get Microsoft games back? I love 3D Pinball!
Would she not have CAB files on the laptop to restore from? If so, going to “Add or Remove Programs” on the Control Panel should allow her to recover it from the CAB files. (Never having done it myself, I’m not sure of the process; cn anyone give further advice?)
Never mind - fixed it. It turns out what I did yesterday was totally reversible. Everything should now be back to normal, by the looks of it. Thanks again for the help.
