I had a feeling this might be exclusive to IE. Let's try a thing or two...
First, try the
manual download of Java and see if that works for you.
Second, I want you to download
CCleaner. We'll use that to clear out your temp files and IE junk. You could just do this through IE, but CCleaner is more thorough, and it comes in handy for other things. Anyway...before you run the program, make sure
Internet Explorer (and
Temporary Internet Files in particular) is checked. If you don't want to delete them, you can uncheck History, Recently Typed URL's, and Autocomplete Form History...it shouldn't make a difference either way. Also make sure
System > Temporary Files is checked. Now, click on Analyze. This will give you a big list of everything the program will delete. CCleaner doesn't delete anything important, but if you see something that absolutely want for some reason, now's the time to back it up or move it. Then click on Run Cleaner and it will clear out all of those files.
Oh, and just to be on the "safe" side, don't have IE open while you do all of this. We don't want to take a chance of it interferring with the cleaning process.
Alright, now that you've done the above, try using IE for awhile and let me know if this has made a difference at all.
As for the difference between IE and Firefox...well, I don't know a whole lot about Firefox, as I don't normally use it. All I can really tell you is that the two browsers run on different engines, so they read codes somewhat differently. If you want, you can read the Wikipedia entries on
Firefox and
IE. I don't know if doing so will answer your question, but it might help you understand the two programs a little better.
