Yes, you can have it create an icon for your desktop and you can drag a copy of the icon to your task bar... then you can open IE and/or Firefox from either icon.

Downloading Firefox is up to you. I will not encourage or discourage it. But, it is more secure than IE, in many ways, even though IE is catching up. When you have an IE window open, click on HELP, then "About Internet Explorer," last item on the drop down menu. A small window should pop open, giving you the version of IE on you computer. You want to have version 7, at least.