Banishing Internet Explorer

[smarties11]

Hi All,

 

We've deployed out the latest Chromium based version of Edge, and most users have been using old-Edge or Chrome for years anyhow. I figure we should be disabling IE11 now, we do have the odd user that still uses it because the IE11 icon is 'the Internet'.

 

Is there an easy way to accomplish this site wide?

 

I know it can be removed through Windows Features, but can this be done centrally through a GPO or any other way? I guess I could block it in AppLocker. Or script the removal in PowerShell. But just wondering if there was any more straightforward way!

 

I was quite surprised to see that it is still turned on by default even in 20H2 despite being out of general support since October.

 

Thanks!

[mrwoberts]

Or script the removal in PowerShell

 

That's likely your best option.

 

Remove-WindowsCapability  -Online  -Name   Browser.InternetExplorer~~~~0.0.11.0

 

The following code will show you the correct name if the above is incorrect.

Get-WindowsCapability  -Online | Where-Object { $_.State -like "Installed" } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

[Arthur]

AppLocker would probably be the best option because there is still a lot of Windows software that relies on IE11 for embedding web content. Microsoft Office is a good example:

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/concepts/browsers-used-by-office-web-add-ins

 

Unless you are on one of the latest builds of "Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise" (Office 365 ProPlus) you will find that embedded videos and old add-ins do not work when you remove IE11.

[mrwoberts]

Thanks, Arthur, that's a good point.

 

Also, SIMS, and Tucasi SCOPay, don't like it when The Ancient One (IE11) is missing - fails to open some reports...

[Michael]

I suspect come August 2021, Microsoft will probably release an IE removal tool similar to the Flash removal tool for ease.

 

Personally I'd leave alone for now, but you can easily set the default browser to Chrome or Edge via GPO.

[free780]

You may find you need to use the IE Enterprise list within Edge which will rely on IE still being installed.

[smarties11]

Thanks all! I've discovered even on my own machine a couple of issues today related to IE11 being uninstalled (I removed it yesterday). First is the .url shortcuts need re-associating to Edge, second is that the Office Customisation Tool stops working in SCCM.

 

The main reason for disabling is that to use Smoothwall Cloud Filter you have to install a Chome/Edgium extension, and then disable IE11. But I'll just use AppLocker to block it on those machines I need to for now.

 

We already have Edge set as the default browser, have done for the last couple of years and I've also removed all shortcuts to IE11 now. Seems odd for Microsoft to take it out of standard support and still rely on it so heavily?!

[Michael]

I suspect the next version of Windows 10 and the next Windows 10 LTSC (released Q4 2021 potentially), won't have IE enabled or available, so you could approach it this way also and deploy an OS without IE built in from the start.