FAQ Topic - How do I prompt a "Save As" dialog for an accepted mime type?

[VK]

There is no point in continuing this thread.

It's a shame for me - but anyone is can accept or do not accept
whatever one wants. People are changing with years.

 

[VK]

I asked for anybody to
tell me how to completely remove IE from a Windows based system and have
the OS still function properly.

And I said that there is a number of tools to do that because IE is
not a part of OS _and_ it is not allowed to be a part of OS by court
decision.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293907
<quote>Internet Explorer 6 is preinstalled by default in all versions
of Windows XP. To provide computer manufacturers greater flexibility
in configuring desktop versions of Windows XP, Microsoft has made it
possible for OEMs, administrators, and users to remove user access to
Internet Explorer while leaving the Internet Explorer code intact and
fully functional to ensure the functionality of programs and operating
system functions that rely on it. For example, Windows XP supports an
"IEAccess=off" switch in the Unattend.txt file, and Internet Explorer
has been added to the Add/Remove Windows Components section of the Add/
Remove Programs tool in Control Panel.</quote>

By leaving out Windows distributions with IE removed in advance (so no
need to uninstall it later) and by taking the most known tools I can
name for instance:

Windows 95 / 98 / 98 SE
IEradicator
http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html

Windows 2000 / XP / Vista
XPlite
http://www.litepc.com/

See also:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Internet_Explorer#Remove_Internet_Explorer_from_Windows

If you can, then IE isn't part of the
OS. If you can't, then IE is part of the OS. If IE is part of the OS
then you have to try to reason why a software company shouldn't be
allowed to require you to use a product to update that product.
Since then, it has been a big circle to right back where we started.

The circle is formed only because you are swapping the facts and
consequences. There is not question if IE is part of Windows OS: it is
_not_ because it is explicitly not allowed to be - and following the
court decision Microsoft never spelled the opposite. The amount of
obstacles (if any) to remove IE is not an argument of any kind in this
question. So your suggestion to determine the "OSness" of IE is an
attempt to put things up side down.

The question is then only to eliminate artificially and illegally
added Windows/IE dependencies where the first and the most important
is Windows Update.

 

[VK]

By leaving out Windows distributions with IE removed in advance (so no
need to uninstall it later) and by taking the most known tools I can
name for instance:

Windows 95 / 98 / 98 SE
IEradicatorhttp://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html

Windows 2000 / XP / Vista
XPlitehttp://www.litepc.com/

There is also a well known service WindizUpdate http://windowsupdate.62nds.com
but there are some legal issues with it to suggest - though it works
with any browser including Firefox and Opera. As I said it is really a
service, not a program. After having installed the client part one
gets download access to updates from WindizUpdate server. So first
they get updates from the Microsoft server and store them on their own
server, then using WindizUpdate one gets informed of updates available
and she can download them on her computer: w/o being "bothered" with
UA type and Validation. However attempting such simplicity would be,
it should be not suggested to fight with illegal actions by using semi-
illegal tools: at least until other alternatives are left.

 

[Dr J R Stockton]

In comp.lang.javascript message <[email protected]

And I said that there is a number of tools to do that because IE is
not a part of OS _and_ it is not allowed to be a part of OS by court
decision.

What you have in effect said, which is likely to be true, is that the
general functionality of IE is now a part of the OS and is used for
tasks other than Web Browsing; but the specific "front end" (which is
now what is called IE) can be removed, removing only Web Browsing.

Obviously one could never remove IE plus ALL THAT IT USES from Windows,
since it uses keyboard, screen, mouse, and disc drivers, etc.

It may well be true that functionality developed for IE - HTML-to-
characters, for example - was first developed by MS for IE browsing; but
when it was found useful for non-browsing tasks it ceased to belong to
IE but became part of the general system.

That means that IE can be removed, removing Web Browsing; but the system
does not become much smaller thereby.

 

[VK]

What you have in effect said, which is likely to be true, is that the
general functionality of IE is now a part of the OS and is used for
tasks other than Web Browsing; but the specific "front end" (which is
now what is called IE) can be removed, removing only Web Browsing.

Sorry, but for some reason this thread stuck in some time warp on
local ISP I'm using: it was marked as "no current updates" until
today.

Right. There is almost no left - if left at all - self-contained DOS-
like programs. Any modern software depends on a number of pre-
installed reusable libraries, drivers etc. Let's take some really
primitive WSH script like that (in order to run on Windows you may
save it as jsrulez.wsf and double-click on it):

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<job id="Sample">
<runtime>
<description>JSRulez 0.0001 kappa</description>
</runtime>
<script type="text/jscript">
//WScript.Arguments.ShowUsage();
WScript.Sleep(5000);
WScript.Echo("Javascript rulez!");
</script>
</job>

All it does is displaying "Javascript rulez!" prompt in 5sec after you
run it. But now let's see: in order to function it requires:
1) wscript.exe file (Windows Script Host dispatcher)
2) jscript.dll (as the dispatcher needs to use JScript engine to run
the script)
3) jscript.dll by itself is an extension library. In order to handle
memory allocation, automation, system query (say for current date) it
uses many modules from kernel.dll and system.dll. Requests for both
libraries are in the jscript.dll header.
All of the will become parts of the above program - in the sence that
the process will get run-time licenses for these libraries. It is easy
to predict that by completely removing wscript.exe and jscript.dll
you'll damage some of your system capabilities. And by removing
kernel.dll and system.dll you most probably will bring it into FUBAR
state. Now me using exactly the same arguments Microsoft is trashing
out on our heads for years, we have to admit that JSRulez script -
once installed - is a vital part of Windows OS. Its removal will
seriously decrease OS capabilities and - in case of complete removal
of all used components - will lead to system crash.
As it is an obvious nonsense, we have then a classical "find the
cheat" puzzle of a kind
2+2 = ... long sequence of math transformations ... = 5
Where is the cheat in our case? It is very simple yet brilliant: we
are taking a normal and obvious sentence "In order to function
properly Internet Explorer needs certain Windows OS system-level
modules". Now a bit of lexical swapping and voila: "In order to
function properly Windows OS needs Internet Explorer". Despite both
sentences are looking very different, now we know that both are saying
the same: the first in normal way, the second in a twisted way.