Reinstalling IE

[akif]

I have somehow deleted my Internet Explorer that got installed when i installed Win98.
Now i want to reinstall it but there is no option in the Windows Setup that points to "IE".
What should i do?

[Paul Komski]

How did you delete it??

If it's still in Add/Remove Programs then try:-
1. Save any work and close all open programs.
2. Double-click or open My Computer
3. Double-click or open Control Panel
4. Double-click or open Add/Remove Programs
5. Scroll down the list of programs until you find Microsoft Internet Explorer........
6. Select/Highlight it and then click the Add/Remove Button
7. This should open a box with a few options.
8. Select "Repair Internet Explorer"

Failing that you could reinstall W98 over your current installation or search for a newer version of IE than IE4 (which comes with W98) and use that from a download or on another utility CD. The IE4 installation on the W98 CD is "hidden" within the cab files.

How and what to restore depends a bit on how you lost IE in the first place.

If you need a quick-to-install browser to keep you running then get Off By One (http://www.offbyone.com/) for a quick download. It's very basic but works fine and is fast.

PS It will fit on and even run from a floppy disk.

[ErnieK]

Paul
I do not think you will find IE in the add remove of 98. It was/is tied tightly into Windows and to access you would probably have to go through Windows setup tab if any place. The only way I know of removing it from windows is to use a program like Win98 Lite.

As for your link it looks like a very handy thing to have in the tool kit. :D

Akif
As Paul said you would be better updating to IE 5 (or Above) this will repair any corrupted IE4 files that are needed, and upgrade at the same time. After doing the upgrade you would then find the facillity to uninstall the upgrade only in Add/Remove.

If you go to the following link you will hopefully still be able to find a download of IE4 for windows etc.

EDIT
Link not working

Here we go another link (google)
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=IE4&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

Here we go another link to same page (google) Go to IE$ Central (4th Link on page)

[Paul Komski]

Ernie - yep - Add/Remove will only show it if IE4 was upgraded.

What I dont understand is how IE got deleted. Is it just the shortcuts that have gone or is the ...\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe file still in it's folder and functional.

[kayofcircles]

Someone posted a few days ago about 98Lite..and I thought then that one of the things 98Lite did to make 98 work better was remove Internet Explorer. Later on, I was wondering if that also removed things like the Quick Launch, but forgot to go check on 98Lite to see.

akif: You might look in your CDs and see if IE 5 or better was bundled with software..I know we have it on a Nero CD and we have IE 5.5 on another. IE 4 was pretty shabby. mjc recommends IE 5.5 with both service packs...for security. The following has many versions of IE, but they're big downloads unless you have cable..I have my son download stuff like this, and copy to CD. IE downloads with installers (http://helpdesk.uvic.ca/how-to/support/win95/msiexpl.html)

[ErnieK]

Paul/Akif
Easiest way to find out if IE HAS been deleted or if it is just the shortcuts is to do a FULL search.
Select show all files and folders and then make sure C:\ (if this is the drive letter for the OS) is chosen. Type Internet Explorer into search field and click search/find.

If the exe for IE is found right click it and create shortcut and then drag it to desktop.

Also there is a facillty in IE to stop showing the IE icon on desktop (not sure if this was in IE 4)- Tools/options/advanced to find it.

As a point of curiosity XP/2000 lite is now in beta stage

[Paul Komski]

TweakUI can hide/unhide the desktop ie icon.

[akif]

Well, in fact, i delibrately deleted it to find out how to reinstall it if this happens.
What i could not understand is that when i installed Win98SE, the IE got installed automatically. Now why can't i reinstall it using the same Win98SE CD??

[mjc]

Firstly, what did you delete?

Did you go to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE and delete that file?

Did you use something like IERadicator to completely remove it?

What exactly did you do?

[akif]

I went to C:\Program files and deleted the IE folder.
Then i deleted any remains what-so-ever of IE (all shortcuts and any thing that contined the words "internet explorer" in its name) to make sure it is gone.

[Paul Komski]

It's nearly always messy to delete any programs in that manner; uninstalling is always preferable. If you were just testing/playing around that's different I guess. Using 98lite would be a better "planned" option, since IE4 is a bit integrated inside W98 (active desktop, internet connection wizards, etc, etc) and it's virtually impossible to delete all the correct registry entries and so on.

If the installation files have been copied onto your HDD (search for IE4setup.exe) you could try running that. Otherwise you are going to need to reinstall W98 over itself, which is the recommended way to get IE4 back after 98lite is installed in place of W98.

To get a cleaner install "over" it might be wise to run IEradicator first to hopefully remove any remnants that you didn't find first; don't know if IEradicator can do this with a partial eradication though.

[mjc]

One other option would be to try to install a newer version of IE.

If you had never updated it from the version installed I would try using the 5.5 SP1 installer...you can find most versions of IE, as complete installer packages here (http://helpdesk.uvic.ca/how-to/support/win95/msiexpl.html) (warning: the full installer packages tend to be a little on the LARGE size).