get rid of IE. you basically can't once you've installed it, so just use firefox. firefox runs very smoothly without any problems. it's very flexible and customisable too. tabbed browsing in firefox is one of my favourite features. it's REAL tabbed browsing, not the fakeish one that comes for IE nowadays. with forefox you might also notice that pages would start loading faster after some time. on top of all that, there's the auto update which basically allows you to install any critical (or not) updates for firefox with a click.
then you have themes and extensions.. you could download themes from numerous websites to make your firefox look the way you want it to be. with extensions, little tiny cool applications are installed within your firefox to give you more features.
firefox also has GREAT security. it's just better than IE when it comes to handling malicious online stuff. trust me on this one
the popup blocker is one of a kind too btw..
i say go for firefox and never turn back.. it might feel a bit weird at the beginning, but just tweak it and in a few days it'll feel just cool.