If you want a minimal trace of IE on your machine, go into the Add or Remove Programs control panel and click on "Add/Remove Windows Components," on the left side of the screen. Scroll down to Internet Explorer and uncheck it. (It will say the option is 0KB in size; this is normal, since, as described above, you aren't deleting any actual files, just making them invisible as a web browsing system. See screenshot for how this looks.) After this, IE won't show up in any menus or on your desktop, and it won't ever launch as a web browser. (You can still use IE Tab if you need IE's rendering system. To reinstall IE, just reverse the process above and recheck the box.)