Can I get rid of Int. Explor. comfortably?

I currently have a modem from my cable co. for the internet.I use IE on MSN in order to use hotmail.But recently I installed Mozilla/Firefox and love it.I have started hearing nothing but bad about IE.Is it possible to get rid of IE and MSN and use my Cable provider[knology.net] with Mozilla and still keep hotmail for my mail.Doing this in hand,,,will it help increase my speed and will I lose any info stored away such as downloads from the internet.Thanks in advance!

 

I am replying to my own post.I found out the hard way on how to do this.If anyone needs help like I did let me know.

 

I've been curious about this. Can windows live w/o IE?