Same here, I'll stay with Firefox and only use IE 6 when it's absolutely necessary, like visiting the Windows Update site to get their latest patches that patch their previous patches. :)
Thats what did it for me,after I got it back for mom
it hung up again on this new update.
Had to uninstall to get back to 6 to get the Critical Update today. Like you I`ll use it solely for the updates that are essential.
I`m partial to Opera tho
Firefox is excellent of course.