Richard - About a month back, when I turned my computer on, a pop-up appeared on screen. I was suspicious, and checked it out for nasties.
It turned out that it was something Microsoft had sent in response to an EU legal ruling about uncompetitive practices - see Wikipedia article.
Basically, Microsoft have been forced to tell Europe that there are other browsers which are not Internet Explorer.
The pop-up links to a web site, presumably owned by MS, which contains a list of alternative browsers, and links to their own web sites - http://www.browserchoice.eu.
You may find something there which gives you an alternative that suits you.
Quack!
GtD.