I have got firefox, browserand thunderbird the e-mail client. Not yet installed, but I will get round to it.
This is basically why i am going down this road.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06...itch_explorer/
XP has program access, set defaults etc if you load other browsers/e-mail clients m$ were forced to provide this.
You will have to keep the ms software where it's use is forced on you, ie m$ update or accessing some m$ only websites which only accept ie 5.5+ etc.