How to Revert Back to Internet Explorer 7

by David Hakala

Q: How do I revert back to IE 7? — Peter M.

Quite a few people are asking the same question. Internet Explorer 8 was released on March 19, 2009. But many of those who downloaded it have already switched back to earlier versions of IE, or other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, due to problems they’ve had with IE8 – not the least of which is the fact that IE8 takes up a whopping 4 gigabytes of disk space.

Fortunately, it is easy to switch back to IE 7 if that was the last browser you used before “upgrading” to IE 8. When you install a new version of Internet Explorer, the old version is preserved in case you want to go back. All of your settings, bookmarks, etc., will be preserved during the return to an older version.

You can let Microsoft uninstall IE 8 and reactivate IE 7 for you. Just go to this Microsoft support “fix it for me” page and follow the instructions.

Note that if you have installed Windows Service Pack 3 (SP3) after installing IE 8, you will have to uninstall SP3, then uninstall IE 8, then reinstall SP3. Few users should have to face that nightmare. Instructions for the tedious process are on the page cited above.

To uninstall IE 8 and reactivate IE 7 yourself, follow the steps below for your operating system.

Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008:

1. Close all programs except Windows.

2. Click Start, type Appwiz.cpl in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

3. In the Tasks pane, click View installed updates.

4. In the list of installed updates, double-click Windows Internet Explorer 8.

5. In the Uninstall an update dialog box, click Yes.

6. Follow the instructions to uninstall Internet Explorer 8.

7. When the uninstall program is finished, restart your computer.

If IE 8 does not appear in the list of currently installed programs mentioned in step 4 above, use this alternative method to remove IE 8 for Vista or Server 2008 only:

1. Carefully select and then copy the following command:

FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-8*.mum /c “cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart”

2. Click Start, and then type Cmd.exe in the Start Search box.

3. In the list of programs, right-click Cmd.exe, and then click Run as administrator.

4. Right-click inside the Administrator: Command Prompt window, and then click Paste to paste the command that you copied in step 1.

5. Press ENTER to uninstall Internet Explorer 8.

6. When the uninstall program is finished, restart your computer.

Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:

1. Close all programs except Windows.

2. Click Start, and then click Run.

3. In the Open box, type Appwiz.cpl, and then click OK.

4. In the list of currently installed programs, click Windows Internet Explorer 8, and then click Remove.

5. Follow the instructions to uninstall Internet Explorer 8.

6. When the uninstall program is finished, restart your computer.

If IE 8 does not appear in the list of currently installed programs mentioned in step 4 above, use this alternative method to remove IE 8 for XP or Server 2003 only:

Click Start, then Run and enter the following command exactly as shown:
%windir%\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe
When the uninstall program is finished, restart your computer.

David Hakala has perpetrated technology tutorials since 1988 in addition to committing tech journalism, documentation, Web sites, marketing collateral, and profitable prose in general. His complete rap sheet can be seen at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dhakala