Microsoft retired the final Internet Explorer 11, which is out of official support. Microsoft Edge is recommended web browser that has IE compatibility to view legacy websites. Though the following guide may not be suitable for recent Windows 10 and 11 Operating Systems, you could find it useful if you still use the earlier Windows 10 versions.
Internet Explorer 11 comes with Windows 10 by default. But Microsoft pinned their Edge browser on the taskbar. Some computer users may think it’s the usual internet explorer and find it completely different. Also, for some reason, when you do a fresh Windows 10 installation or buy a pre-installed OEM version of Windows 10 with the new laptop or desktop, you may notice that Internet Explorer is not installed.
This guide shows you how to reinstall or uninstall Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10 and pin it to the taskbar.
IE 11 is a built-in feature of Windows 10; we just need to enable it from Programs and Features as we did to enable the telnet client. If you do not find Internet Explorer in the programs/apps, then obviously, it’s not installed on your Windows 10.
Read Also: How to change date format on Windows 10/11
The Windows 10 taskbar looks like the below with the Edge browser. You can read more information about the Edge browser here.
Search for ‘Internet Explorer’ to discover whether it has been installed on your Windows 10 computer.
If you do not see the above app, it has not been installed.
Install Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10
As mentioned earlier, it can be enabled from programs and features from the control panel.
1) Go to ‘Programs and Features’ in the control panel (search for ‘programs’ and click the below result).
2) Click on ‘Turn Windows features…’ and tick ‘Internet Explorer 11’ to install it on Windows 10. Once you press OK, the installation will begin. You do not need to restart the computer.
That’s it; we successfully installed Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10.
Uninstall IE 11 on Windows 10
If you like to uninstall Internet Explorer 11 from Windows 10 for some reason, you can follow a similar step. Since we can’t uninstall it like other normal programs, it should only be done from Windows features.
Go to ‘Turn Windows features…’ in the control panel, un-tick the Internet Explorer 11, then press OK. This will uninstall IE 11 from Windows 10.
Install and Uninstall from Optional Features
If you have a tablet version of Windows 10 and are familiar with the Windows 10 apps, you can do similar steps from the ‘Manage Optional Features’ app.
Search for ‘Manage Optional Features’ and look for IE 11. ‘Manage Optional feature’ is similar to ‘Windows Featured Turn off and on’.
If IE is already installed, you will get the option to uninstall it. If it is not there, you will get the option to install it.
How to Make IE 11 as Default Web Browser in Windows 10
The Edge browser is the default web browser on Windows 10 OS. Follow the steps to change Internet Explorer 11 as the default browser.
- Search for ‘Default Apps’ in Windows search.
- Click on the ‘Web Browser’ settings and select Internet Explorer from the list.
- Once you select it, IE 11 will be the default web browser on your Windows 10 computer.
We hope this simple guide is useful for reinstalling and uninstalling IE 11 on Windows 10. Alternatively, you can try other famous browsers fully compatible with Windows 10, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
Read our list of free antivirus software for Windows 10/8.1 here.
