How can i permanently delete IE and WMP from my hard drive safely?

Although uninstalling Internet Explorer from Windows is possible, you are strongly advised not to remove IE, for a number of reasons [1]:

1. Many web sites are programmed to work only with Internet Explorer. For example, webmasters authoring a site may have not tested with other web browsers. The majority of websites on the Internet should work with Mozilla browsers, but there are some sites that appear distorted or inaccessible unless IE is used as a browser.
2. Windows Update requires Internet Explorer. As an alternative, you may be able to manually download security updates, but it will require more monitoring and work than letting Windows Update handle this for you.
3. Some applications depend on libraries installed by Internet Explorer. These applications may no longer work or they may behave unexpectedly if IE is removed.
4. Some anti-virus products require IE for updates. Live updates or automatic DAT updates used by both Norton and McAfee are built on Internet Explorer’s foundation. You may be able to manually update your virus signature files but it could require more work.
5. Both removing and restoring IE is risky and difficult. IE is complex with extensive hooks built into Windows, for efficiency and functionality. Thus unplugging it from your system may impact Internet connectivity, Windows functionality, and break functionality in Microsoft Office and non-MS products.
6. IE is more than a browser, it is the foundation for Internet functionality in Windows.

If you still want to remove IE despite these warnings, there are third-party programs available like LitePC that remove IE but these are most definitely not recommended for novice users. Instead of uninstalling IE, you should consider the alternatives first, such as making IE more secure, or hiding Internet Explorer.

-mozillazine.org

The better bet would be to not use these programs and set something else as default such as media player classic and firefox. These MSFT programs don’t impact your system if you’re not running them.

You’re likely to cause yourself a lot of problems if you try to delete MSIE. The basic difficulty is that it’s not simple to “find IE”—the functionality in IE is scattered throughout the system, in several DLLs that other programs depend on.

If you have to ask a question like this, I’m sorry, but you don’t know enough about how Windows works to make this even remotely a good idea.

You should consider IE part of the operating system. If you don’t like it, just don’t use it. Delete the shortcuts to it from your desktop, start menu, and quick-launch bar. Use whatever browser you want. But removing the program itself is neither a trivial task nor a good idea.

It’s seldom appropriate to just find a “program” and delete it. To fully remove a program, go to Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove Program.

I really recommend you don’t do anything to your system. No offense, but you have proven with the wording of your question here that you are capable of doing great damage to your system. No, you cannot just delete some files, that causes a lot of problems because the computer still thinks it is installed, programs are much more than just what is in a directory you find. And IE is so deeply integrated into XP that it is something I as a very skilled computer person would not attempt to do at all. There simply is no benefit for removing it, and there are a lot of places where you can do harm. Simply do not use it.

You would remove WMP through your control panel’s Add/Remove Programs.

Listen up. (To these guys) ^^^^^

If you don’t want WMP on your system, you can uninstall it, but it’s harmless unless it’s running. If you’re annoyed with the automatic updates to these programs, just use the setting to download but not install updates until you’re ready, then check the boxes to ignore the updates when you apply the monthly patches.

Control panel > add/remove only reverts it back to wmp9 , well thats what happened when i did it .

@sandystrachan, you only uninstalled the update. To get rid of WMP altogether, use the icon to Add/Remove Windows Components. Scroll down, find the box for Windows Media Player, and uncheck it.

And of course, another “solution” is to delete Windows altogether ;-)