or how I learned to stop worrying and ditch IE
Alright, there seems to be a common myth among the general populace that Internet Explorer is the only way to browse the Internet. You're wrong. Absolutely wrong. QUIT IT.
What you need to do first is go here and click the "Download Now!" button in the upper left. It's a bit big, so if you don't have broadband, you may want to start this download before you go to bed and let it work overnight. Once it's downloaded, run the setup program. I'll trust you can all figure this out on your own. Congratulations, you now have Mozilla Firefox installed on your computer. Welcome to the real world.
So what's so great about this Firefox thing?
1. No more popups. Ever. Firefox has a built-in popup blocker, and it will show you a dialog box ONCE saying that it blocked a popup. After that, you'll never see the damn things again.
2. Tabbed browsing, a.k.a., Internet from God. Press Ctrl+T to open a new tab, and Ctrl+Tab to swtich between tabs. No more will you have scores of tiny little Internet Explorer windows on your taskbar to switch between. All of your sites can be in the same window. And here's the best part - if you middle-click on a link (that's when you click the mouse wheel), the new site will open in a tab BEHIND the current site. So, you can click on a link, keep doing what you're doing, and read that new site whenever you feel like it. It may not sound like much, but once you get used to it, you can't go back. And once you're done with a tab, you can just middle click on it up in the tab line to get rid of it.
3. Extensions and themes. Customize your browser to work and look however you like. Open source - it's a beautiful thing.
4. No more spyware crap. You know all of those "Search toolbars" and "Helper bars" that infested Internet Explorer? Doesn't happen with Firefox. Of course, you still might have the stuff around from your Internet Explorer days, but that's your own damn fault.
5. It's a HELLUVA fast browser. I'm serious, use it, and you'll see what I mean.
6. Proper support for W3C standards. I don't know if you know what that means, but it's a Good Thing (tm). Internet Explorer is notorious for not properly implementing these standards.
So, in short, please just give this browser a try. It'd be a much better world if we could all quit using Internet Explorer and get rid of spyware and popups forever. Fight the power!......or something like that.