uninstms.htm: fravia's anonimity academy: "It's a long long way to get rid of M$IE"

C O N C E A L E D	fravia's hidden software Fravia's Nofrill Web design (1998)		updated June 1998	Back to project 9 It's a long long way to get rid of M$IE (Don't trust your software - 2) Concealed and hidden files inside your own computer. D'you really know what your software is doing when you are asleep?

Second essay: It's a long long way to get rid of M$IE
A small contribution in order to damage Micro$oft
by fravia+, 17 June 1998

Dear readers, most sentient beings hate Micro$oft in such a passionate way, that at time it seems legitime to ask 'Why?'. Indeed some may wonder why is such a hate so deep rooted, so absolute, so fierce.
Well, a possibile answer is given in this small essay: Micro$oft 'plants' its software so DEEP in your computer, that you de facto cannot get rid of it, like it or not. Not surprisingly one of the most 'evil rooted' pieces of software is M$'s Internet Explorer. Billgato and his minions wanted to make sure that any user, once hoocked into using the M$-browser, would never have had the ability to easily change to a 'real' browser... well-knowing that nobody in his right mind would have returned to their pukesoftware.

As we have already seen in another essay What's behind the mm256.dat and mm2048.dat files?, already in Windows 95 (and NT) the interaction between Micro$oft's browser and Micro$oft's operating system has reached such a level that you can only tremble thinking what for monstruosities will conceal (yeah, it's the right word: conceal) windows'98.

I publish this now in the hope to damage a little more Micro$oft's current 'delicate' legal situation. Judge by yourself if this (the only way I know of to get really rid of Micro$oft's Interenet explorer once it has been installed) is the way an 'user friendly' operating system (whatever this is supposed to mean... IMO Unix is far more user friendly than windows :-) should handle its customers...

Well... you may start like all the nice brave users do: using the shoddy ADD/REMOVE function. Please do, go ahead, once you have finished you'll notice that there are still many files as well as Registry information and garbage pertaining to Micro$oft's Internet explorer.

How to purge completely your system of M$IE then?

Well, it's definitely NOT easy... one could think that Micro$oft actually DOES NOT WANT you to get rid of M$IE... well, here are the necessary steps (taken from Steven Patterson's list):

Best to print these instructions and follow directions while removing. When you are done, Every existance of IE will be gone, even the IE icon in the control panel.

Deleting IE - totally - step by step - don't hold your breath

It's quite a chore. These instructions originate from Microsoft:

1.) In Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs:
Uninstall each of the following items in this order:
a.) ActiveMovie
b.) NetMeeting
c.) Internet Mail & News 1.0
d.) Internet Explorer 3.0
2.) When all have been removed in this order then... Exit from Windows 95 and restart computer. As it is restarting at the Black DOS screen that says 'Starting Windows 95' hit the "F8" key. From the menu select "Command Prompt Only".
3.) When you get to the C:\> prompt load 'Smartdrv.exe' (without the quotes)
4.) Change directory to the Windows directory ( cd\windows <enter> )
5.) Use the 'Deltree' command to delete the following directories:
a.) OCCACHE
b.) JAVA
c.) COOKIES
d.) TEMPOR~1
6.) Next change to the C:\Windows\System subdirectory and prepare to delete the following files using the 'Deltree' command (ONE OTHER OPTION TO Further protect yourself -so you can get these files back easily from DOS would be to create another directory called "Safety" in the Root of C:\> drive and copy these files there first. Then delete them from the Windows\System subdirectory:
MSHTML.DLL (852.240 bytes)
INETCFG.DLL (96.256 bytes)
ACTXPRXY.DLL (37.440 bytes)
WININET.DLL (299.280 bytes)
CACHEVU.DLL (29.008 bytes)
INETCPL.CPL (116.912 bytes)
SHLWAPI.DLL (37.376 bytes)
URL.DLL (103.184 bytes)
URLMON.DLL (166.672 bytes)
WSOCK32N.DLL (27.728 bytes)

Phew! 2.245.088 bytes of useless DLLs!
7.) Then reboot computer, coming back into Windows 95 normally. At this point, use "My Computer" to get to the C:\> and open it. Then open the "Program Files" folder. In here delete the following directories (or Folders):
Microsoft Netmeeting
Microsoft Internet
Internet Mail & News
8.) Then run REGEDIT from the 'Start Button' (Start/Run). In here you want to delete the following KEYS (they will be yellow folders on the Left side of the split display. For each of these components you will have to single-click the Plus sign to the left of the corresponding yellow folder to get to the last thing at the right of each item. If you search for these registry keys and cannot find them then don't worry about them. If Components for IE 3.0 have been removed correctly they will not be there except for the .url one. (supposedly)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.url
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut
(the middle one above has a 'period' in front of 'URL'. When you find the Yellow Folder that corresponds to these paths -one for each- you highlight the folder that the path I've listed above completes and right-click it and select 'Delete'.
Since you've got your registry saved (copied) to your Safety folder then we can get back to the way things were before you started editing the Registry.
EDITING THE REGISTRY IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS THING TO DO AND AS A STANDARD WARNING WE STATE THAT IF SOMETHING IS DONE INCORRECTLY IN HERE IT COULD CAUSE THE NEED FOR A COMPLETE DELETION OF WINDOWS95 FROM THE COMPUTER AND NEED TO BE RE-INSTALLED.
When you (or they :-) have installed Internet Explorer, some Windows 95 system files have been replaced. If you find that the newer versions of these files cause problems with some other applications, you can restore the original versions. The files, and their original versions, are:
ADVAPI32.DLL in the Wind95_11.cab file on the OS_CD-ROM (or floppy).
COMCT132.DLL in the Win95_10.cab file on the OS_CD-ROM (or floppy).
OLEAUT32.DLL in the Win95_09.cab file on the OS_CD-ROM (or floppy).
If you need to restore these files, just place them directly inside the WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder.

Uff...! Now you have totally de-installed M$IE, see how your hardisk breathes better? If you now install opera you'll have a FAR better browser (faster, more configurable, more controllable, more 'clever') and you'll never regret having eliminated Micro$oft's abominion from your harddisk.
One problem is NOT solved yet: you still have the 'self regenerating' mm256.dat and mm2048.dat files inside your 'puter! Have a look :-(
...and then they wonder why everybody with a brain hates the windows OS and Micro$oft...
awaiting YOUR OWN contributions!

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