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Sevral years ago, I uninstalled every one of my internet browsers on a laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium version 6.1.7601, installed in 2011.

I now want to install a browser - any browser - onto the laptop. However, I can't figure out how to install a browser without having a browser.

Internet Explorer is completely uninstalled. FTP commands through Windows Explorer (such as found in question 302602) are not working either. I used to have Chrome as well as Firefox, but those were both completely uninstalled.

My laptop has good internet connection, and can run Outlook and many programs (though not all) when it is in a good mood.

NOT A DUPLICATE OF:

How can I download and install a browser on a new installation of Windows 7E? - that refers to Windows 7E and the solution doesn't work on my version.

How to get a web browser without one - ftp commands aren't working

Community
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user6595
  • 161

5 Answers5

8

Just use Chocolatey. It's a package manager for Windows, just like apt is for Linux.

Install it using this command in prompt:

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

It's useful to enable Global confirmations:

choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation

Then, all you have to do is type in prompt:

choco install googlechrome

And it's done. Simple, easy and fast!

RHaguiuda
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4

It's not possible to completely uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 7; it can only be disabled so it doesn't look like it's installed.

To bring it back, go to the Control Panel and open Programs and Features. Then, select "Turn Windows features on or off". Internet Explorer should be in the list. Just check it and hit OK. Once it's done it should prompt to restart the computer.

This assumes that you didn't use some kind of hack tool to remove it. If that's what you did then you'll have to download a browser somehow, either on another computer with a USB flash drive (the easiest way), or use FTP to grab it from Mozilla or wherever. You said you tried FTP but you didn't say exactly what the problem was.

Wes Sayeed
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3

Assuming a vanilla Windows 7 installation, you have at least PowerShell 2.0. It can download files, although slightly complicated:

If you just need to retrieve a file, you can use the DownloadFile method of the WebClient object:

$client = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$client.DownloadFile($url, $path)

Where $url is a string representing the file's URL, and $path is representing the local path the file will be saved to.

Note that $path must include the file name; it can't just be a directory.

It would be written like that:

$client.DownloadFile("https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/47.0.1/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2047.0.1.exe", "D:\\Firefox Setup.exe")

Note how backslashes need to be escaped by a backslash. If it immediately displays an error message, check that the target location (D:\ in my example) is writable by the current user.

Make sure to also read the other answers over there, because it’s a lot easier on PS 3.0.

Community
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user219095
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0

Boot a live Linux disc

start a terminal

install wget:

sudo apt-get wget

Then download firefox

wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/47.0.1/win32/en-US/Firefox\ Setup\ 47.0.1.exe

Copy it to a memory stick and then onto the PC. Or better still install Linux on the PC.

Buteman
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-1

open a cmd window

right click bottom left click "run" type "cmd" enter below line

curl –output ffs.exe https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/73.0.1/win64/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2073.0.1.exe

Shane Hurley
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