Legacy Update: Get back online, activate, and install updates on your legacy Windows PC

To help our customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft will distribute Windows Internet Explorer 8 as a high-priority update through Automatic Updates for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and higher, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 SP2 for x64 and x86 and as an Important class update for Windows Vista for x64 and x86, Windows Vista SP1 for x64 and x86, and Windows Server 2008 for x64 and x86.
This Blocker Toolkit is made available to those who would like to block automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 8 to machines in environments where Automatic Updates is enabled. The Blocker Toolkit will not expire.

Note:

• For computers running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, the Blocker Toolkit prevents the machine from receiving Internet Explorer 8 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates and the Express install option on the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites; Internet Explorer 8 will be listed as an optional update with the Custom install option.
• For computers running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, the Blocker Toolkit prevents the machine from receiving Internet Explorer 8 as an important update via Automatic Updates on the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites; Internet Explorer 8 will be listed as an optional update.
• The Blocker Toolkit will not prevent users from manually installing Internet Explorer 8 as a Recommended update from the Windows Update or Microsoft Update sites, from the Microsoft Download Center, or from external media.
• Organizations do not need to deploy the Blocker Toolkit in environments managed with an update management solution such as Windows Server Update Services or Systems Management Server 2003. Organizations can use those products to fully manage deployment of updates released through Windows Update and Microsoft Update, including Internet Explorer 8, within their environment.
• If you used the Blocker Toolkit to block Internet Explorer 7 from being installed as a high-priority update, you need to use the Internet Explorer 8 version of the Blocker Toolkit to block Internet Explorer 8 from being installed. There are different registry keys used to block or unblock automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

See the "Additional Information" section below for detailed instructions on configuring and deploying the Blocker Toolkit. The same information is also provided in the Help file included in the download.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions can be found here.

Files

Status: Deleted This download is no longer available on microsoft.com. The downloads below are archives provided by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine from the Microsoft Download Center prior to December 2015.

Files
IE8BlockerToolkit.EXE SHA1: c6d76d664488ec39cab595a99caaf68110cd0cd2 Size: 78 KB

File sizes and hashes are retrieved from the Wayback Machine’s indexes. They may not match the latest versions of files hosted on Microsoft servers.

You must have one of the supported operating systems installed to use this toolkit.

1. Click on the link to download the package and select ‘Run’ or ‘Open’. You will be asked to accept the end-user license agreement (EULA) before you gain access to the package contents. The package contains 4 different files.
2. Pick a location where you would like to place the 4 files above by clicking on ‘Browse’. Once you have specified the location to place the extracted files, click ‘Ok’.
3. Launch an elevated command prompt from Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right click on “Command Prompt” -> Run as Administrator. Type “CD” followed by the path where you have extracted the 4 files in step 2 above.
4. In the command prompt, type “IE80Blocker.cmd /B” and hit enter to set the blocker on the machine.
5. You will see confirmation in the Command Prompt: “Blocking deployment of Internet Explorer 8 on the local machine. The operation completed successfully.” You can now close the Command Prompt window.