well really, i know you are wary about upgrading to IE7 but i haven't had any problems with it at all since i upgraded and i was even bold enough to try it out when it was still in it's beta version.

perhaps that might help? it's not really that different. it's a lot like FF now (i dunno if you've ever used FF) the main difference from IE7 and older versions is the tabbed browsing which i find very useful.