As an ASIDE to the topic ... yes, nat is right, there are alternatives to IE altogether ... about a dozen of them, but really only three (and a half) that count for much: Internet Explorer (although you could almost break it down into two separate browsers - IE9 and non-IE9)Chrome (newer than Firefox, but it has recently overtaken Firefox as the second-most used browser)Firefox (has for a long time been IE's biggest rival)Opera (my "half" vote for starting the "Paste and Go" feature, but otherwise pointless)(oh yeah, then there is Safari, which is really only relevant for Apple devices - it exists for Windows, but ...) It is entirely a matter of personal preference, but there are few glitches with websites and applications that do not work properly in non-IE browsers (mostly business-related), although most large, reputable, and responsible companies have tested/addressed most major browsers.
I recently downloaded IE 8. Didn't seem to be an improvement of past version. I get the feeling 8, is more about Microsoft (MS) marketing, than a better browser. It now says at the top of my browser "optimized for Bing and MSN". Despite the fact that I unchecked the box, that was to make that my default option. It there a way to change that? I tried to do that, in add-ons. But, it wouldn't keep Google as my default search engine. Second questions, is there anyway to find out weather MS is giving you a better piece of software, or software to help MS market their web sites, before you download it?
Internet Explorer 8