Here are some terrific replacements for Internet Explorer and Outlook; all are very secure by themselves and most are much more user-friendly than the Microsoft products.
Integrated Browsers and Email Software:
Mozilla is an excellent browser which also has email and a newsgroup reader. It is the best choice for you if you want a browser with minimal headaches. Netscape's line of browsers are actually based on Mozilla, but are nearly identical besides Netscape's brand name (and, in some cases, some spyware included with the Netscape products -- Mozilla is safe though.) I've found the newer versions of Netscape to be painstakingly slow, but Mozilla is nice. The only gripe I have is that it can sometimes take a second or two to open up to your Bookmarks (the equivalent of "Favorites" in Internet Explorer or AOL). Not a big deal, though. Mozilla also has a good email program and a half-decent newsreader built-in. Here are some links for extra info on Mozilla.
Opera bills itself as the fastest browser available, and it lives up to that claim. And when it works, you'd never want to use another. My only gripe with it is that it, like all versions of Opera, crashes occasionally on startup. I strongly recommend not filling out any personal info in the Advertising setup screen, but Opera does not attempt to force you to do so. (Yay!) The built-in "mouse gestures" make navigating much easier than with other browsers (Mozilla can have them too with an optional add-on, called a plug-in, which, as far as I know, does not contain any spyware. But Opera has them built-in). It is also a very "clean"-feeling browser. If you currently use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you probably will get adjusted to the look of Opera easily. Opera also has the ability to send/read email and newsgroups. And, once again, it is FAST! You can also get a no-Java version if you don't want Java.
Dedicated Email Software:
Eudora is extremely popular in business and with home users. It is clean, fast, and NICE! It is probably second in popularity to Microsoft Outlook, but is much more friendly. It will normally run in Sponsored mode unless you pay for it, but it doesn't seem to serve ads. Ad-Aware will flag a folder used by Eudora as spyware due to the fact that it has the same name as a common spyware, but it is not and this is a false positive on Ad-Aware's part.
Pegasus is a quality email program. It's nice and easy to use. It doesn't have as many features as Eudora running in Sponsored mode, but is very easy to learn.
Newsreaders:
Agent is far and away the easiest, most feature-packed newsreader in existence. It is free but it is one of those things that's so good, many people will pay for it anyway. Download the 32-bit version for all Windows versions except 3.11.
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In case you get lost, this page is located at http://www.oocities.org/yosponge/mailnews.html