well those toolbars come with many many programs if you do not read carefully when doing installs or updates including java, flash, and IE, many of them, in fact there is a hall of shame at COU forum listing all of the programs that now include pre selected toolbars in their install, it has nothing to do with the browser you use to do the download or install it has to do with watching what is pre checked when doing your updates or program installs and un checking any for things like toolbars. I have had to clean tons of toolbars off of peoples computers too who had never heard of firefox, only had IE. I tell people to add a second browser because it is a very good idea to always have at least 2 on the pc because as we all know IE can and does fail then leaving them no way to access the internet. Whether they select firefox, chrome or opera, it does not matter but firefox is the best known so when asking for help they will find more people that are familiar with it. All browsers have their pluses and minuses none are perfect and I have never seen anyone here say any one browser is perfect. the point to make to people who have loaded up their pc with toolbars, why this is happening to them, is to watch what they are doing! Pay attention to every single line when doing any type of install. And do not let it add unwanted items, if they are not told how it happened it will happen again. I direct them to this list Installers Hall of Shame (Unwanted add-on)

Hmmm.... strange. Could be a spyware problem. Does the skin message come up as soon as IE opens or after using it for a while ?

I sometimes get that message when I have a loose connection, either with my cable modem or the Linksys router. It will clear after checking the connections and/or pushing the reset button. Just my 2 c's. Bejay

Hi everyone, This is very informative and from what I've read, it said nothing about removing IE7 and it makes sense to me that if you would remove IE7 and then put in IE8 and you didn't like it you wouldn't be able to go back to IE7 because you removed it. Hi Owbist, Do you have an external drive or second internal drive to which you create backups of your computer? If so the answer is quite simple methinks. Backup the whole computer. Install IE8 and test it. If it fails miserably, which it probably will not, then you can restore the backup and carry on as you were. If your version of IE8 is from yesteryear then use the link below and grab the latest version. Thank you for that information and thank you for the link to the download. I was thinking if the old wasn't good now, then I wouldn't want to download that one and start with a new one. Your link will be very helpful. No I don't have an external hard drive, I've looked them up but, didn't know which one was the best one to get or how large of a one I would need. I have flash drives but I don't think you could use one of those to backup a whole computer. raven, Thanks also for the xmarks link I will save that link in case I want to use that one. My problem would be trying to use it once I download it. Yes, by all means use a current link to the upgrade. DA Thank you I will do that.