I use SlimBrowser which adds tabbed browsing and all the other goodies one could want to the IE engine. I would agree that IE is no better or worse in a secure environment. With regularly updated AV. firewall and anti-spyware (I use the free MS AntiSpyware) you're about as safe as you're going to get. FireFox is beginning to turn up vurlnebilities more often (12 in July) as it becomes more popular and hackers begin to pound on it. Now browser alone is going to make you safe. You can switch to a platform with a miniscule market share perhaps. Ideally, get VMWare or some other virtual machine environment and do all your browsing in a VM that you can restore in seconds if it gets trashed and your "real" system remains secure.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken