Guys

The current year TurboTax programs do not inform you that they are going to install the IE5.5 program, and do not ask your permission. That makes it installation of unauthorized software, which is a violation under 18 U.S.C. 1031 in my opinion.

So far as I could determine, you cannot install the tax prep program without the IE5.5 installation. Since we weren't warned of the installation, we didn't make a thorough study of "options," but I don't believe there are any.

Intuit's explanation of why they installed it is "to make it easier to send all your tax information THROUGH Intuit, which they would not do(?) unless they intend to "harvest" your information? Unauthorized (and I didn't say they could) collection of information from someone else's computer in interstate communication is also a specifically enumerated violation of the same Federal Code.

They represent that the IE5.5 that they install is "plain vanilla" MS IE5.5, which is probably not a bad program. The installation did break my web and email setups, which has never happened with a previous IE upgrade. Have they added anything? Don't know.

The version installed on my machine was IE5.5 SP1, which is not the current/latest service pack. I installed SP2 (which was a 1.5 hour download on my POTS connection) and it broke my web and email config files - again something that has never happened with a previous IE upgrade. Have they added anything? Don't know, but I'm getting suspicious.

There is no legitimate purpose in forcing this installation. The only conceivable purpose is to force (or at least strongly encourage) you to send all your tax info through Intuit. Why???

Incidentally, our observation is that IE5.5 is significantly slower than our previous version. According to Microsoft, this is a problem specifically addressed by SP2, but it apparently doesn't fully compensate this "feature."

IF BUT ONLY IF you have the uninstall files for your current version on your machine, you stand a chance of reverting back to it after you uninstall Intuit's IE5.5. I've yet to see an uninstall that removes everything though, and if Intuit is willing to break the law to get it on your machine, I'd think it reasonable they'd arrange to leave something behind if you remove it - or am I just paranoid.

Microsoft is not clear on whether security fixes installed to your old version will be restored, so I probably would rerun them.

If you are not using any version of IE, then you probably could expect to be able to get your old program back. Intuit claims their stuff "won't replace your existing browzer." (But if they put a bug there will it work with your old browser????)

John