How to Downgrade from IE 7 to IE 6 ?

[archer6]

Recently I used Microsoft Update, and did not realize that it would also load IE7 onto my T60.

What's the best way to downgrade from IE7 back to IE 6?

Thanks

[Stargate199]

You should be able to uninstall IE7 from "Add and Remove Programs" in the Control Panel. I think you need to check the box that says "Include installed updates" in order to see IE7. Click uninstall, reboot, and you should be back at IE6

[sugo]

I hope the rollback works well for you. Last time my co-worker uninstalled IE7, windows got into a bad state that neither IE6 or IE7 works.

[RealBlackStuff]

Leave IE7 in there, and rather than go back to IE6, install Firefox from www.getfirefox.com
It's much safer and less virus-prone than any of the IE-versions.

[Paul Unger]

I hope the rollback works well for you. Last time my co-worker uninstalled IE7, windows got into a bad state that neither IE6 or IE7 works.

For what it's worth, the 'add/remove programs' rollback worked for me.

[archer6]

Leave IE7 in there, and rather than go back to IE6, install Firefox from www.getfirefox.com
It's much safer and less virus-prone than any of the IE-versions.

I'm already using Firefox. Just wanted to get this "toxic" version of IE 7 off my computer.

Thanks

[archer6]

I hope the rollback works well for you. Last time my co-worker uninstalled IE7, windows got into a bad state that neither IE6 or IE7 works.

For what it's worth, the 'add/remove programs' rollback worked for me.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm really hoping that it's as simple as that and I have a good result as well. I have read some horror stories and this is the only forum I trust.

Cheers...

[archer6]

I hope the rollback works well for you. Last time my co-worker uninstalled IE7, windows got into a bad state that neither IE6 or IE7 works.

Thanks for the feedback, do you specifically what problems resulted in it was uninstalled?

[archer6]

You should be able to uninstall IE7 from "Add and Remove Programs" in the Control Panel. I think you need to check the box that says "Include installed updates" in order to see IE7. Click uninstall, reboot, and you should be back at IE6

Thanks for the tip about the installed updates, if I remember correctly I had to do that on a much earlier version. I'm just trying to gather as much info as possible before actually doing this.

[Paul Unger]

Take a look at this:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/aa740486.aspx

or this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927177

or this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... iefaq.mspx

Hope that helps.

[archer6]

Take a look at this:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/aa740486.aspx

or this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927177

or this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... iefaq.mspx

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the links, as I am approaching this cautiously.

Actually the problem I'm having is that it crashes when encountering flash sites. I normally use Firefox, but after IE7 downloaded and installed during my unattended Microsoft Update routine (I will not make that mistake again)

I thought I would try it. Usually I only use IE for accessing the Lenovo site for updates / drivers etc. And the MS site for updates. Anyway I decided to give it a try since it offered tabs and seemed to work well for about 20 minutes. With about 10 tabs open to some sites I use all the time, it crashed and I got a message something to the effect of the Flash plug in was the issue. So I insured that I had the newest version. Crash again. Then I disabled it (the flash plug in) but decided that perhaps I would go back to IE6 as I had no problems at all with that version.

Since I do a lot of research I'm not going to gaming sites or anything of that sort. This is my work machine, mission critical and therefore there is nothing other than work apps.

Before posting here, I checked the MS knowledge base, googled it, etc and did not come up with anything.

Perhaps before I react and uninstall IE 7 I will ask if any of you have had this issue and if there is a suitable fix.

Thanks to all the have contributed so far, and I will await other ideas or suggestions.

Cheers...

[Stargate199]

I think that was a known problem. An updated version of Flash player was released not too long ago and think that fixed it.

[archer6]

Ok, so here's what I've done. I went to the Adobe site and downloaded an uninstaller for the Flash Player. I then proceeded to close out of all programs. I ran the uninstaller which went smoothly. Then I launched IE7 and returned to the Adobe site, installed Flash Player and now all seems to be working just fine. I've been using IE7 for the last two or three hours just to give it a good test.

Thanks again to everyone who provided feedback and suggestions here.

Also just in case it's helpful to any of you this issue was with:
ThinkPad T60 running XP Pro SP2 and recently upgraded from IE6 to IE7. With ver 6 it was completely stable, with ver 7 it crashed whenever encountering Flash content.

In addition, I read that when one upgrades from 6 to 7, in the process of the install it tends to corrupt the Flash Player files no matter which version, so the best procedure to follow is the process outlined above regarding Flash Player.

Cheers

[Purcy]

I'm already using Firefox. Just wanted to get this "toxic" version of IE 7 off my computer.

Thanks

Hello, I see where you say that you use Firefox also. I only use Firefox, vers 2.0.0.2 and they offer an IE Tab plug-in on the Mozilla site: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/

With this installed tab on your toolbar, you can specify which sites must use IE (I have it set for Lenovo and Microsoft) and if you visit those sites it will automatically render the page in IE. You can also click on the tab before or after you visit a page to change the rendering engine. I find it very useful.

[Chonsk]

A small problem with that otherwise exellent plugin is that it doesn't use IE's way of handling websites css' 100%-ish. This is of course only a problem if you need an exact "copy" of IE, for instance for web developing.

Is there any way to have both ie7 and ie6 installed or are there any way to simulate this...anyone?

/Hannes

[Muse]

Actually the problem I'm having is that it crashes when encountering flash sites.

I like having a tabbed browser but my issue is that a utility I use isn't functioning properly with IE7 on my T60 (XP Pro). This utility has always worked fine in every version of Windows I've tried it on (well, not fine, but reasonably OK - it has its own bugs), up to and including Windows 2000. The utility does a lot of things but the problem with my Thinkpad is that it will not send keystrokes to fields in a browser window. I can still send keystrokes with the utility to other applications on the Thinkpad, but never to any field in a browser window. Nothing happens. I don't know if it's involved with IE 7 or XP Pro. As a test, I was thinking of installing IE 7 on my desktop (which runs Windows 2000 and IE 6), before trying something like uninstalling IE 7 on the Thinkpad and installing IE 6. From looking at this thread it appears that messing this stuff can be fraught with danger, and I better be careful. Maybe I'd be best off installing Firefox on the Thinkpad and leaving IE 7 alone and seeing how things go with Firefox. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Edit: Also, I'm curious to know why people find it necessary to use IE to access Lenovo's website. That site only supports IE for certain functionality?

[archer6]

Actually the problem I'm having is that it crashes when encountering flash sites.

I like having a tabbed browser but my issue is that a utility I use isn't functioning properly with IE7 on my T60 (XP Pro). This utility has always worked fine in every version of Windows I've tried it on (well, not fine, but reasonably OK - it has its own bugs), up to and including Windows 2000. The utility does a lot of things but the problem with my Thinkpad is that it will not send keystrokes to fields in a browser window. I can still send keystrokes with the utility to other applications on the Thinkpad, but never to any field in a browser window. Nothing happens. I don't know if it's involved with IE 7 or XP Pro. As a test, I was thinking of installing IE 7 on my desktop (which runs Windows 2000 and IE 6), before trying something like uninstalling IE 7 on the Thinkpad and installing IE 6. From looking at this thread it appears that messing this stuff can be fraught with danger, and I better be careful. Maybe I'd be best off installing Firefox on the Thinkpad and leaving IE 7 alone and seeing how things go with Firefox. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Edit: Also, I'm curious to know why people find it necessary to use IE to access Lenovo's website. That site only supports IE for certain functionality?

I had the same issue(s) you both describe above. Once I uninstalled IE7 (which went quite easily to my surprize) the problem went away.

And yes, one must use IE to access the full functionality of tech support, driver downloads etc on the Lenovo site.

[Muse]

I had the same issue(s) you both describe above. Once I uninstalled IE7 (which went quite easily to my surprize) the problem went away.

And yes, one must use IE to access the full functionality of tech support, driver downloads etc on the Lenovo site.

Is it necessary for me to uninstall IE 7 to clear up the sending-text dysfunction in browser windows or can I just install Firefox instead and use it? Then I could use IE (7) when I need to do Lenovo updates or do the workaround stuff using Firefox described above in this thread. Thanks.

[archer6]

Is it necessary for me to uninstall IE 7 to clear up the sending-text dysfunction in browser windows or can I just install Firefox instead and use it? Then I could use IE (7) when I need to do Lenovo updates or do the workaround stuff using Firefox described above in this thread. Thanks.

My suggestion would be to uninstall IE7, especially since it is easily removed using add/remove programs. In addition when removing IE7 this way, IE 6 is restored as part of the process. When I used add/remove programs to uninstall IE7 the entire project including restoring IE 6 tooks only 5 minutes. In addition, it's my understanding, based on feedback from friends with the same issues, that the longer IE7 is on your machine the more chance for additional corruption. In my particular case I had already been using Firefox for over one year with no problems.

[Muse]

Is it necessary for me to uninstall IE 7 to clear up the sending-text dysfunction in browser windows or can I just install Firefox instead and use it? Then I could use IE (7) when I need to do Lenovo updates or do the workaround stuff using Firefox described above in this thread. Thanks.

My suggestion would be to uninstall IE7, especially since it is easily removed using add/remove programs. In addition when removing IE7 this way, IE 6 is restored as part of the process. When I used add/remove programs to uninstall IE7 the entire project including restoring IE 6 tooks only 5 minutes. In addition, it's my understanding, based on feedback from friends with the same issues, that the longer IE7 is on your machine the more chance for additional corruption. In my particular case I had already been using Firefox for over one year with no problems.

But my concern with this (it may not be a worry) is that IE6 is probably not already on the machine. I bought it (T60) end of November, and IE 7 was part of the default software package. Why would IE 6 be on the machine? I presume I'd have to download and install it from Microsoft. Probably not a biggie, but I want to know where I stand with this. Why is IE 7 dangerous? I do not yet have Firefox on the machine. Thanks for any concepts, insight, help, guidance, etc.

[Purcy]

I think the only way to get IE7 is to upgrade IE6, so somewhere along the line that browser must have been upgraded. What you do is download Firefox current version and also get the IE Tab plug-in, so you can render any pages on Firefox in Internet Explorer. Then go and take out the IE7 upgrade from Add/Remove Program, which should roll you back to version 6 of IE.

[pkiff]

[...]This is of course only a problem if you need an exact "copy" of IE, for instance for web developing.

Is there any way to have both ie7 and ie6 installed or are there any way to simulate this...anyone?

Some web developers use Tredosoft's pre-packaged setup file to Install multiple versions of IE on your PC. This is normally done on a PC which has IE 7 set up as the default browser. I would not recommend this solution if you are simply having problems accessing one particular site or with one particular set of functions.

Edit: Also, I'm curious to know why people find it necessary to use IE to access Lenovo's website. That site only supports IE for certain functionality?

[...]And yes, one must use IE to access the full functionality of tech support, driver downloads etc on the Lenovo site.

I'm also surprised to hear this, and that has not been my experience. I'm not sure which functions you are having difficulty accessing, but my default browser is Opera and I have not had difficulty accessing the Lenovo site. In most cases, Firefox can be tweaked to access such sites as well -- such as the IE Tab add-in suggested by others above. Microsoft Windows Update is normally accessible only using Microsoft Internet Explorer, and maybe the functions being referred to are really part of Windows Update?

In addition, it's my understanding, based on feedback from friends with the same issues, that the longer IE7 is on your machine the more chance for additional corruption.[...]

Why is IE 7 dangerous? I do not yet have Firefox on the machine. Thanks for any concepts, insight, help, guidance, etc.

I've not seen information suggesting that IE 7 is dangerous or that it corrupts one's machine. It was specifically designed to improve the level of security provided to the user and my impression is that it does precisely that. There are a variety of reasons one might decide to remain with IE 6 instead of upgrading to IE 7, but browser security is not one of them as far as I know -- and I would be suspicious of suggestions that IE 7 was in-and-of-itself responsible for the corruption of operating system files or any other "dangerous" effects.

Phil.

[Purcy]

Microsoft Windows Update is normally accessible only using Microsoft Internet Explorer, and maybe the functions being referred to are really part of Windows Update?

I just wanted to add that I have successfully gone onto Microsoft's Update site and taken down updates using the IE Tab on Firefox.

[archer6]

My suggestion would be to uninstall IE7, especially since it is easily removed using add/remove programs. In addition when removing IE7 this way, IE 6 is restored as part of the process. In addition, it's my understanding, based on feedback from friends with the same issues, that the longer IE7 is on your machine the more chance for additional corruption.

But my concern with this (it may not be a worry) is that IE6 is probably not already on the machine. I bought it (T60) end of November, and IE 7 was part of the default software package. Why would IE 6 be on the machine? I presume I'd have to download and install it from Microsoft. Probably not a biggie, but I want to know where I stand with this. Why is IE 7 dangerous?

You have a good point, IE6 is not on your machine as it was on mine. Please understand that I'm NOT suggesting IE7 is dangerous. Buggy yes. I'm merely passing on the experiences of other skilled users that I trust to provide accurate feedback.

[Muse]

But my concern with this (it may not be a worry) is that IE6 is probably not already on the machine. I bought it (T60) end of November, and IE 7 was part of the default software package. Why would IE 6 be on the machine? I presume I'd have to download and install it from Microsoft. Probably not a biggie, but I want to know where I stand with this. Why is IE 7 dangerous?

You have a good point, IE6 is not on your machine as it was on mine. Please understand that I'm NOT suggesting IE7 is dangerous. Buggy yes. I'm merely passing on the experiences of other skilled users that I trust to provide accurate feedback.

So far, my only quarrel with IE7 is that my macro/automation utility fires blanks when sending keystrokes to the browser window on my XP Pro/IE7 T60. I figure my next step may be to install Firefox and try making that my default browser and see if I have better luck. Is there danger in doing this?

[archer6]

I've not seen information suggesting that IE 7 is dangerous or that it corrupts one's machine. It was specifically designed to improve the level of security provided to the user and my impression is that it does precisely that. There are a variety of reasons one might decide to remain with IE 6 instead of upgrading to IE 7, but browser security is not one of them as far as I know -- and I would be suspicious of suggestions that IE 7 was in-and-of-itself responsible for the corruption of operating system files or any other "dangerous" effects.

To clarify my earlier post, at no time did I suggest that IE7 is dangerous, nor was I attempting to suggest that it was the cause of corruption that was experienced by others whom I consulted with. I was simply reporting my experience and those of some skilled users that I trust to provide accurate feedback with their personal experiences. Also please note that I myself am not an Anti-Micosoft Zealot, as I happen to like MS products. I simply like some choices and I enjoy working with both the MS Browser as well as Firefox.

Thanks for this opportunity to clarify my thoughts and experiences.

Cheers.....

[archer6]

I figure my next step may be to install Firefox and try making that my default browser and see if I have better luck. Is there danger in doing this?

I think this is a brilliant solution which will work very well for you. I see no downside whatsoever. I have been using Firefox for a few years now and have not had one problem to date. An amazing statistic.

In your particular case I see this as a golden opportunity to take care of your issues.

Cheers...