I suspect that explore.exe and Iexplore.exe are tightly merged or linked in the OS. Especilally from millenimum edition, I suspect that's part of monopolistic M$ strategy.

Mentionned MsMittens XPlite site is very interesting for a quick surf, its just annoying to pay 40 box to remove a M$ stove pipe...

Maybe the best solution is to double my hardware ram capacity from 512 to 1G so it would be neglictable but that would be a brut force a defeat soution.

God save linux, BSD, unix, and send M$ to hell...