Found this interesting little article which explains how to remove IE from your system entirely (including routing system calls to your alternative browser (most likely Firefox))
Not for the faint-hearted, but an interesting technical exercise given that MS swear (often in court) that it can’t be done………
mrBen
If u have xp just go to the control panel and add remove program and on the left side click add remove windows component and when the window appears uncheck IE and that will remove it!!
I think the problem with doing that is that it will struggle with Windows Update – the instructions given on this site include altering some registry settings so that this will work properly. Not being a Windows user (XP or otherwise) I haven’t tried it.
Certainly in the past it has been very difficult to properly remove IE in a way that doesn’t cripple the system, mainly because Microsoft wanted it to be that way. It does always appear in Add/Remove Programs (IIRC), but removing it fully and still having a functioning OS has been a different matter.