my guess is you have IE with yahoo add ons which make it yahoo centered. You can go to your control panel add remove programs and remove all that extra yahoo stuff like the toolbar etc. IE is by Microsoft no one else makes IE period, there are add ons that can be added to it but if you have IE8 you have the Microsoft IE8. Deleting the extra yahoo stuff will not affect your yahoo email at all you can still go to yahoo and sign into your yahoo mail account, you can do that from any pc anywhere. I totally agree in downloading and installing firefox or an other browser so should that one stop working you still have a way to get online. I personally use firefox, it is super easy to do just go to the download site, choose to download the windows version, it will install, in the process it will ask if you want to import your settings from IE just say yes to all and it will set up firefox exactly as you have your Ie with all your bookmarks and home page etc. It will ask if you want to make it default you can say no that can be changed any time. Then once it is done and installed anytime you want to use firefox to go online just click on the firefox icon on your desktop or tray, you can go back and forth using IE and firefox and can even use both at the same time. Firefox has a lot of great add ons for it that I love. Should you need the download link to re-install IE8 here is where to go. Internet Explorer 8: My guess is what you actually got is this right here Internet Explorer 8 optimized for Yahoo! IE8 optimized for Yahoo allows you to get instant visual results and helpful suggestions with enhanced Yahoo! Search. Preview your Yahoo! Mail Inbox with a click, and enjoy the built-in Yahoo! Toolbar. Explorer optimized for Yahoo!. here is how to disable the yahoo addons Add and remove Internet Explorer 8 add-ons Here is a link that might be useful: firefox

mikie: can't say I understand the ghack... site well. It says to determine if my IE settings are already safely set in 'advanced' security mode by going thru Tools, Options, Advanced, and then down somewhere in the Security area to look or do something that is not clearly defined. I see that there is a check box for Allowing some 64 bit security setting that is checked in the ghack picture. It is not further described and it is not the highlighted item in that list. In my IE 11, that box is not checked, but by going more directly thru Tools, Security, I can see that 'advanced security' is selected. I suppose that 64 bit box might need to be checked, but it appears to be allowing more rather than less access and that seems like a weakness rather than an improvement. So, I don't know what I am supposed to do here. And it seems odd that a supposed huge hole that requires massive Microsoft scrambling can be fixed by checking a box or not!!! The ghack site then goes on about something called Enhanced Mitigated Experience Toolkit. It doesn't tell how to get it safely and also implies it is not needed if my security is set appropriately. Gee Thanks. Finally, it comments on Flash. I have already upgraded but I would like to point out that the Adobe terminology and others as well tend to suggest that it is an update rather than a newly named version. It seems odd that what seems like a patch, is a new version; but whatever, I guess.

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

a bad update could affect just the browser or many parts of the Operating system. But it definitely can happen that Internet Explorer fails for one reason or another. Then having an alternative browser to be able to get online is a life saver other wise you have no way to access the web. So yes to your question IE could fail and firefox still work just fine allowing you to access help to fix your IE. If it was one that shut down the entire OS then it won't help that necessarily