Fred Vorck's Windows Repository

This site is known mainly for showing users how to do these things:

• Remove Internet Eplorer from Windows 2000, XP, or 2003 before installation
• Slipstream hotfixes into Windows 2000 or XP before installation (as if you'd slipstreamed a Service Pack) using HFSLIP
• Make Windows 2000, XP, or 2003 "SATA Ready" at install without a lot of work and without pressing F6
• Hacking a setup 2000, XP, or 2003 DLL so that you can modify INF files and keep components from installing (similar to what nLite and my fileset do)
• Shut off WFP if you really want to, using a Registry setting (no, not that one, a new one) or using a hacked DLL

Remove Internet Explorer

Remove IE from Windows 2000 and slipstream new hotfixes.

Remove IE and junk from Windows XP and slipstream new hotfixes.

Click here for an overview of removing IE. (If you're clueless, skip to "tell me I'm wrong" at the bottom.)

Hotfix Lists

View the Post SP4 Hotfix List for Windows 2000, maintained courtesy of bristols

View the Post SP3 Hotfix List for Windows XP, Muppet Hunter's list (local) or Mimo's list (offsite)

View the Post SP2 Hotfix List for Windows 2003, maintained courtesy of me, FDV

Hack your Windows setup file

Hack SETUPAPI.DLL so you can modify Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 setup files

Add install-time drivers

How to manually add SATA and other drivers to a Windows installation CD.

HFSLIP

Click here if you only want to use HFSLIP

You can ask questions about and get support for HFSLIP in this forum.

Shut off Windows File Protection

Shut off Windows File Protection ... by either hacking a DLL or NOT hacking a DLL. The "not hacking" method uses two reg edits. Two. And yes, it works in Win 2000, XP, and 2003 and will always work. Yes, really -- always. And no, it's not the reg edit you're thinking of.

Download the fileset
(Please, only for those who already know the whole process)

• For Windows 2000 Workstation (Windows 2000 "Professional")
• For Windows 2000 Server
• For Windows XP (includes IE as of April 2010, edit SYSSETUP.INF to remove)
• For Windows 2003 (includes IE as of April 2010, edit SYSSETUP.INF to remove)

Download some software that I recommend and use myself

History and Credits

Tell me that I'm wrong
Click here to tell me I'm wrong! But first, check to see if any of the following apply to you!

• You've been under a rock for the last eight years.
• You want to tell me that removing Internet Explorer (not IE safe) is impossible.
• You want to tell me I'm only hiding the icon, not really removing IE.
• You want to tell me that although removing IE is possible, it's bad to do.
• You think you're secure having IE on your computer as long as you don't use it.
• You think that deleting IE files after installing will clean IE from your system.
• You think that if Firefox were more popular, it would be just as insecure as IE.

Contacting me

If it's just greetings, go ahead! I love getting that kind of mail!

If you need a question answered, please give a good try at figuring out what you need to before asking. If you're stumped, well, then, okay, e-mail me. It's not that I'm a jerk or anything, I just keep busy, that's all. My e-mail address is "fred" at this domain.

1a. If you have not read the process, save it. Maybe you want to tell me that this can't be done, or will make a system unstable, or will make a user unable to update their machine (lol), or will disable Add/Remove Programs (hahaha! idiot), or disable HTML Help, etc. I've answered every criticism like this already, years ago, in blogs, forums, and on Usenet. Also, please know that you are most likely an imbecile. Why? Because you didn't bother to read. Reading the site keeps people from making you look foolish in public forums when you post things like "you can't remove IE! It's integrated!"

1b. If you are with the press, please read the whole process and save yourself from getting pwned in the comments section of your article or your negative blog entry.

2. Please keep it related to Windows 2000. No Windows XP or 2003 questions, please. Sure, I can answer them, but I never did much with XP and I can't necessarily check out a scenario.

3. Please try to avoid asking me weird questions. Examples: "I have developed my own experimental TCP/IP stack, and when I use it with your files, I am unable to browse." Or "I want the DirectX sound component totally removed, how do I do that?" By all means, don't limit yourself, but there are scenarios that I don't cover because I don't think they're very useful. It's difficult for me to train you how to fight IE integration if you insist on tying one hand behind your back. If you insist on doing something really weird, chances are I won't have the time, patience, or interest to answer your bizarre scenario.

4. To find out what a certain file does, look it up here.

Miscellaneous

The hard-won Wikipedia entry. There's a long story behind this, but the important thing is that an IE removal section exists now. Note that in the discussion page, some kid is apparently unaware that bundling IE with Windows was a HUGE issue in Federal Court in the 90's.

"The guy at the keyboard of a Windows Vista box, using Microsoft Office at work and Windows Media Player at home, is not the customer, he is the product. The customers are Dell, AOL, media licensing conglomerates, and so on." Tackhead, posted on Slashdot

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
Bill Gates, admitting he never listens to his customers

Because it's XP-specific and doesn't fit anywhere else, here is my Dog Destroyer for Windows XP (also kills Zip folders). Run it, and bye bye Search Dog. This isn't a Registry hack. This is permanent. (Source)

For search engines only...
Remove internet explorer
Remove internet explorer