Prevent IE8 From Being Installed

Internet browsers are really a matter of personal taste. Some people just stick with Microsoft Internet Explorer because is is just there with Windows, others chose to install Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or another browser. Sure there are differences in features and performance, but a lot depends on how you use your browser and which sites you visit.

But if your are indeed using Internet Explorer, you might already have had a look at version 8. IE8 is currently in beta and we have also installed, and uninstalled IE8 already. For me it just does not live up to expectations, performance was not there unless I disable all the extra functionality and the compatibility with a lot of websites is also still a problem.

But what if it comes out of the beta phase and is released by Microsoft as pat of the Windows update? Based on my experiences so far I really do not want to install it again, unless I am convinced that it really offers something useful. So I would prefer not to install it automatically.

Especially when you have Windows configured to automatically download and install updates, you would want a way to block IE8 from being installed. This is exactly what Microsoft is offering! On the IEBlog details on their IE8 release plan and the possibility to block the IE8 installation.

A toolkit to disable automatic delivery of IE8 is available, but it all comes down to a single registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\8.0

In here you need to create a REG_DWORD value with the name “DoNotAllowIE80“. When the value is set to 1, IE8 will not be installed. Setting it to 0 will allow the IE8 installation.

You can use the toolkit to change the value, or, if you don’t mind using the Windows Registry Editor, you can do it manually.