BleepingComputer.com: Ie7 Can't Be Uninstalled

Dell Dimension 8200 running winXP Home 2002 w/SP2, P4 2.0 ghz, 512 megs ram

User was having multiple problems, read that he could uninstall IE7 from Add/Remove, so did so. No IE6 showed up on Restart. Reinstall of IE 6 reports newer version present. Reinstall of IE7 reports installation failed, no reason given.

All above was done as Administrator and NO antivirus or antispy software running.

Now I have the computer and have been asked to fix it! Suspect something of IE7 remains in Registry. While I feel comfortable following instruction in Registry, don't have the knowledge of where to look or what to do when I find it.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. I don't care what version of IE we end up with, just something! Am using Firefox successfully, but would like to access Windows Update site and it requires IE.

Thanks,

donnar

What kind of trouble was the user having before he uninstalled IE7?

Unable to access various control panels, blank windows and such. Attempting to access Users & Groups yielded and endless stack of blank script error windows. Attempting to access the Help & Support area yielded nothing. No way could he get to Windows Update, even online. All those issues are now gone, everything non-internet is working fine. Just have no browser and although we can get to Windows Update via Help & Support, and error says unable to display page with a number 0X80072EE7.

I can provided a log of the failed attempt to reinstall IE7 if that would help.

donnar

Here are a few items that should provide some help.

Uninstalling IE 7 (which usually automatically returns you to IE6)

M$ KB How to uninstall Internet Explorer 7

Have been through those procedures, but checked them out again carefully. They all assume that I have an IE7 folder that contains an uninstall.exe file. I do not. I DO have hidden files showing, but IE7 folder was evidently removed during the Add/Remove uninstall. The only instances of IE7 left on the computer appear to be in the Registry, but I don't know what to do about them.

I'm afraid if I attempt the Recovery Console that will also fail, as it states "If Internet Explorer 7 cannot be uninstalled, but if the Windows\ie7\Spuninst folder exists".

thanks,
donnar

So, I'm back in IE6, and here's how I did it (I wouldn't necessarily advise this!). I have another computer running the same OS and with IE7 working fine. I found that folder with the uninstall file in it and copied it to the "broken" computer, in the same location, the ran the uninstall routine using %windir%\ie7\spuninst\spuinst.exe

The whole uninstall process went smoothly. Per instructions I had seen elsewhere, I restarted twice before checking, then found IE icon on my desktop, clicked and it opened at IE6. Great!

Still not back to 100%. Trying to access Microsoft update fails with error #0x80072ee7. As per Microsoft advice, hecked the host file, but it appears to be fine.

Any ideas? Thanks for the help so far.

donnar

Good to hear you were able to uninstall IE7.

Please check out this article: Error Mesage Detail.
Although it also provides instructions to edit the hosts file, there are a few links at the bottom of the page for solutions that may be helpful.