I'm lucky in that two of my best friends are serious tech nerds, on computers for over 20 years. One of them is an elite level programmer who knows pretty much everything. If I have questions I go to one of them, although I try not to abuse the privilege and have them do it for me. Rather I ask them to steer me in the right direction, and I'll ask more if necessary. I've also spent a lot of computer time self-educating.

I have 3 browsers on my computer. (yahoo came with DSL but I only use it to play games *ahem.*) When I boot up, all browsers are on my desktop but none is active.

I click and open whichever browser I want. Yes, it's possible to have all 3 running at once. Each browser operates in its own window(s) and does not interact with the others.

Pat, Outlook is a proprietary program of Microsoft which also owns IE. So if you click on a link in an email in Outlook, it immediately goes to IE because that's how it's programmed.

Oh, and whoever asked (I'm in editing box so can't see prior posts) -- you need a good anti-virus program, because your BROWSER isn't the only part of your computer. Firefox may not have the bugs of IE but it can't protect your hard drive.