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Sure, some might suggest using Netscape. I tried version 6.2, and it sucks. It has more user interface garbage hogging screen real estate than just about any other application I have ever seen. Not only that, the program hangs when I try to resize windows. AOL is the worst thing to ever happen to that app. I doubt I'll ever use it again.

Quicken may or may not work without IE5.5, as IE is integrated with it. Alternatly, once you are done using quicken you can uninstall IE5.5 and revert back to 5.0 In all honesty you shouldn't have TOO many problems with 5.5 as it is acutally closer to 5.0 than 6.0.

Huh? I run IE 5.5 with minimal problems. AFAIK both Netscape and IE have roots in Mosaic. I'm not sure what problems you are having. I'd immediately go to Windows Update and see if I was missing any critical updates from the install.

I stopped using Turbotax when I got an accountant. He has paid for himself and then some. Personally, if the older version of Quicken had been Y2K compliant, I'd be using it as well. Reports in the current version suck. Trying to make a custom report is almost impossible. Turbotax installing something besides Turbotax is an indication of BAD BAD programming. I'd better stop now on that subject, I feel a rant coming on about cash flow, upgrades, required net access and snooping, and a bunch of other things.

Rip out TT and return it as a defective product. Get a C.P.A. Inputing info for taxes into a program without a real accountant looking over your shoulder makes as much sense as having the concession cashier be your tech.

What I don't understand is what exactly about TurboTax requires a particular version of a browser to be present? It always worked just fine in the past with whatever browser was on my system.

Simple. It uses one or more of the DLLs that are part of I.E. 5.5. Most likely it uses direct calls to the 128 bit encryption. Windows programs are only very rarely a complete code set, and commonly rely on the API (Application Programmers Interface), for such simple things as printer dialog boxes, open file dialog boxes, etc. Some programs require parts of programs like Excel or Access to run properly. The application company saves development time $ and debugging time $ by doing this.

The problem is that these code snippets can be updated or changed, or even downgraded by an older program with a faulty install protocol. That can make other programs not work, because they expect explicit behavior from that code snippit.

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