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)

Joe, I'm not saying this would or would not be useful, I just found it with a search... http://www.bbcode-to-html.com/ Personally though, just because I like to do things the difficult way I'd probably throw copies of all the text files containing the bbcode into a folder and attempt to develop a script to convert them all in one go. I'm not saying I could do it, but I'd likely try. For instance, this rough beginning using "sed" works on the bbcode you posted above. It's missing a bunch of tags, even the regular [URL] one, but maybe it wouldn't be that difficult to extend. Or maybe it would, I don't really know. sed -e 's/\[b\]/\<strong\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/b\]/\<\/strong\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[u\]/\<u\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/u\]/\<\/u\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[url=\([^]]*\)\]/\<a href="\1"\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/url\]/\<\/a\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[img\]/\<img src\=\"/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/img\]/"\>/gi' Running the bbcode you posted above through that script yields this HTML: Download Autoruns for Windows: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx No installation required. Simply unzip <strong>Autoruns.zip</strong> file, and double click on <strong>autoruns.exe</strong> file to run the program. Go <strong>File>Save,</strong> and save it as <strong>AutoRuns.<u>txt</u></strong> file to desktop You must select <strong>Text</strong> from drop-down menu as a file type: <a href="http://s175.photobucket.com/user/ZEP516/media/p4436801_zps3defde9d.gif.html"><img src="http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/ZEP516/p4436801_zps3defde9d.gif"></a> Upload the file(s) here: http://www.sendspace.com/ Click on <strong>Browse</strong> button and navigate to the file you want to upload. Click on <strong>Upload button.</strong> Click on FIRST <strong>Copy Link</strong> button and paste the link in your next reply. Which when posted here gives: Download Autoruns for Windows: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx No installation required. Simply unzip Autoruns.zip file, and double click on autoruns.exe file to run the program. Go File>Save, and save it as AutoRuns.txt file to desktop You must select Text from drop-down menu as a file type: Upload the file(s) here: http://www.sendspace.com/ Click on Browse button and navigate to the file you want to upload. Click on Upload button. Click on FIRST Copy Link button and paste the link in your next reply. The good thing about it is that once written, it would just as easily handle five hundred files as one. The bad thing is, I don't know "regular expressions", although I wouldn't mind learning. Actually, I did learn a wee bit just now. Thanks. :) Edit: line-spacing This post was edited by chuggerguy on Fri, Jan 24, 14 at 16:46

Add the new browser. It's just another program and your computer doesn't care whether you have one browser or ten, and they don't interact with one another or interfere with one another. I have three browsers, and, since they have slightly different features, I occasionally have all three open at the same time. In addition, you can import all of your bookmarks into the new browser(s) from IE. There are ways to remove your current version of IE, but not typically from the Control Panel, and it may cause further problems if you do it. Leave IE alone and don't bother with it if it isn't working properly. Maybe the next update of Windows will even take care of whatever problem you have.

I'm sorry, but I have read this thread and reread it. With all this high-powered talk of an .exe file, are we talking about "activating" an installed application itself or the setup file after download? Plus, for whatever reason I surfed the web via Google for an answer on this. It appears this concern dates as far back as 2005 and I never did find a clear answer. One reoccurring report was a resolution by resolving a conflict with Nero and InCD. While another was a virus attack. I did find something interesting. An apparently seasoned poster laid claim that all .exe files are not executable. First I have heard of that. He claimed to determine if a file is indeed executable a user must open the file in Notepad and make note of the first two characters of the report. These characters must be MZ. I checked several files on my system and found them to indeed have MZ. DA