The goofy part, pr3mium, is that in Vista they completely integrated IE7 to avoid you uninstalling. Fine. But they removed an earlier feature that allows you to do a repair reinstall. If your IE7 breaks, mine's got a minor problem now, you can't fix it without either finding and replacing the bad module(s) in Windows - which can be a cumbersome process because of security permissions in Vista - or reinstalling Windows. I tried going for IE8, but the problem I'm having also prevents installing that. I took out Firefox, because of a problem I was having this might have caused (it was either that or quicktime, and I suspect quicktime, though they're both somewhat "dirty" installs). But I can always re-add it.
I think that really illustrates what's wrong with MS and Apple that drives people to Linux. The "we know better what you need than you could possibly know" arrogant attitude. Maybe this development and the stripping down of Windows 7 - making it leaner and (hopefully) meaner - is a step in the right direction. Which could be the case now that "Darth Bill" has retired.