# I need to install IE 8 or 7 on Windows 7--can I do this?



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I need to access a specific government site, but in order to do so, I *must *use IE 6, 7, or 8. My OS is Windows 7, and I currently have IE 9, which will not work at all with the site I need to access. No other browser will work; hence my need to use IE 6, 7, or 8.

How can I do this? I've tried a few things but get messages telling me that my current OS won't support it.


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

uninstall ie9 and ie8 should come back..


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

You know, I tried doing that, but I can't figure out how to uninstall IE9. It's as if Microsoft makes it impossible to do. Is there a "secret" way of doing this?


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

thought it was in the regular windows uninstall (control panel)..
I had 9 for a week and dumped it (back to 8)


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## kiknwing (Jun 24, 2009)

It's under "view installed updates" or you could install a windows xp virtual machine


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

houskamp said:


> thought it was in the regular windows uninstall (control panel)..
> I had 9 for a week and dumped it (back to 8)


No, it's not there, which is why I asked.



kiknwing said:


> It's under "view installed updates" or you could install a windows xp virtual machine


Where's the "view installed updates" located?


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## kiknwing (Jun 24, 2009)

when your on the "uninstall or change a program" screen, on the left side it has options for control panel, view installed updates, turn windows features on or off.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Actually, I found it. It's under the "Programs and Features" section. Now I'll see if that helps. Stupid government websites. How antiquated they are.


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## kc1ih (May 22, 2004)

The government, and everyone else, should not write web sites that require a specific browser. I want to choose what browser I use, not the government or some corporation. And since the site in question can only be viewed with IE, that means it can’t be viewed with a Mac. Is this the governments gift to Microsoft?


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

I found tons of sites that didn't display right in 9.. as well as the realy stupid top bars..


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"Lord Vader" said:


> Actually, I found it. It's under the "Programs and Features" section. Now I'll see if that helps. Stupid government websites. How antiquated they are.


It's pretty bad. The USPTO supports Acrobat 10 for efiling, but only support IE6 and Firefox 2 on Windows and Safari 2 on Mac. Then there are the Federal Courts that only accept ego Inge in WordPerfect. Others only accept Word.

In your case, it's not too bad that they support up to IE 8, but other browsers need to be supported.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

Working in a place that does a lot of government work, I can tell you what is happening. They must verify that all of their unique softwares, web pages, etc, work with a new browser, and are secure (lol) before allowing them to be viewed in new browsers.

My place of busines is still on IE7 for that very reason. This same reasoning applies to Office and OS as well. The IT group has to verify that a new OS works right with every piece of unique software and does not cause any security issue before it can be released. They started checking out Windows Vista several years then switched to Windows 7. I'm referring to just checking it out. Most of our PCs are on Win XP and some still on Win2000.
It seems that new software comes faster than IT can verify and approve it.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Hmmm.... won't the website work with Firefox or Chrome? Strange....

One thing that you can do is run IE8 as a virtualization under a XP and then upgrade the browser from IE6 to IE8. See http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx . Personally, I just use Virtualbox.

Of course, if your website still states that you need IE5 or later, or Netscape 7 or later to view the pages, it may be time for that website to upgrade.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Mark Holtz said:


> Hmmm.... won't the website work with Firefox or Chrome? Strange....


No. It doesn't work with anything but IE 6 through 8. I uninstalled IE9, have 8 now, and things are working fine.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

dmspen said:


> Working in a place that does a lot of government work, I can tell you what is happening. They must verify that all of their unique softwares, web pages, etc, work with a new browser, and are secure (lol) before allowing them to be viewed in new browsers.
> 
> My place of busines is still on IE7 for that very reason. This same reasoning applies to Office and OS as well. The IT group has to verify that a new OS works right with every piece of unique software and does not cause any security issue before it can be released. They started checking out Windows Vista several years then switched to Windows 7. I'm referring to just checking it out. Most of our PCs are on Win XP and some still on Win2000.
> It seems that new software comes faster than IT can verify and approve it.


It seems strange to me that systems would be on 2000 and security issues being as a possibility for not upgrading. Isn't running on Windows 2000 itself a security issue? They stopped releasing security fixes a year ago.


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

dpeters11 said:


> It seems strange to me that systems would be on 2000 and security issues being as a possibility for not upgrading. Isn't running on Windows 2000 itself a security issue? They stopped releasing security fixes a year ago.


That's the gummint for you. Better the devil you know and all that. Plus there is "security by obscurity". I worked for a gov't agency that used an IBM mainframe running an OS from the 60's for a web server. Our webmaster used to look through the logs and laugh at all the script kiddies that were trying to hack into it by accessing directories that only existed on Microsoft IIS. He was very proud of the fact that no web server running that OS had ever been hacked. THe fact is, it just wasn't worth the trouble, like writing malware for Macs used to be.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

The government sites are all pretty much just nasty anyways. No surprise here lol.

If the site doesn't use activex or IE specific content, you can sometimes spoof the user-agent to make other browsers work.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

dmspen said:


> Working in a place that does a lot of government work, I can tell you what is happening. They must verify that all of their unique softwares, web pages, etc, work with a new browser, and are secure (lol) before allowing them to be viewed in new browsers.


The idea is that websites don't need to be written to a particular browser and therefore should not be. If the tools you employer uses force that, it is your employer that should be pilloried, not Microsoft or Mozilla. Of course there is a certain amount of accountability at the government agency level for failure to specify that the code must be fully independent of browser or platform.

Websites designed for public access shouldn't include Frontpage extensions, or any of the other queer (and poorly conceived) client-server tools.


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## neomaine (Feb 3, 2003)

Now running IE9, I've found a number of sites that don't work (as well) as they used to. Compatability mode has fixed the problem for all of them so far. Including Facebook for my wife... (she wen't a week before telling me that things weren't working right with uploading pictures...)


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