Yes, I realize it's probably not a good idea. I know I can't uninstall it on our main computer. We homeschool, and the software we use for 2 of the 4 main subjects requires IE, so my son wouldn't be able to do school if I uninstalled it. Shh, I better not tell him, he'd be all for not having to do LA and History anymore!
As for my laptop, I had a couple of weeks where it seemed like a popup would show up every 5 min. or less, in an IE window, even though I never use IE, only Firefox. I had popup blockers installed in both IE and Firefox, I went into the preferences of IE and disabled every type of script I could find, and I even finally used my firewall to block IE's access to the internet! The popups still kept happening, but one day I installed the new Yahoo toolbar for Firefox, which comes with an AntiSpy program. That's what seems to have finally done the trick.
But if it happens again, I have bookmarked the link you posted, I'll save it in case I get desperate 