I avoid Microsoft Internet Explorer like a crack whore with a sore on her lip. It is completely un-secure, lacks useful features, and is full of features I don’t want. My favorite of the latter is when one types in a URL that the browser can’t resolve it redirects one to MSN and runs a search on the goo that was typed. Most commonly I made a typo, and simply need to re-type, but now I have to wait for the stupid search page to load and focus is no longer set to the address box, so I have to wait and click and type (IE drives me to run-on sentences).
I just saw a post on IEBlog that explains how to set Google as the default search engine. I haven’t figured out how to disable the redirect, but at least now I am taken to Google instead of MSN. Giving me a wee bit of control over the beast is most satisfying.