I have confirmed that IE9 IS NOT APPROVED FOR USE ON WINXP.

Microft admits it won't work on XP.

Haven't confirmed the same advice for IE8, but IE9 is pretty much just a "rollup" of changes introduced Iin E8, so I suspect that IE8's not approved n XP.

IE8 or IE9 wll not appear in your add/remove programs list, but if you click on the "Show Udates" box there, you can UNNSTALL the update that put the new IE on, and you'll go back to your other last good version.

As said, I don't know that IE8 isn't good on XP, but strongly suspect it, so make your own decision.

John