I have an almost new laptop running Windows 7.  Some time back the automatic updates gave me IE9.  Now after using it for a few minutes, whether I am using just hotmail or just going from page to page while reading a story or a link I have searched on, it just stops responding.  It works again if I restart windows (although as I shut down or restart windows warns me about losing data in open program, so IE9 may still be running even though it is unusable.

  Chrome and Firefox seem to work OK, but I would rather use IE.  I do run Norton antivirus full scan weekly, but it only reports finding an occasional "tracking cookie".