My computer crashed and the first two real pieces of software I want to install are Thunderbird and Firefox. I do not want Internet Explorer - ever again.

Thunderbird must not be as popular - the search for it took me straight there, I downloaded it and there it was.

Firefox was a different matter - the top searches from Live and google.com both took me to sites which wanted me to register for Firefox. If you see this, exit the page immediately - it is phishing in its worst form.

You can always go to http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/. They don't pester you for your personal details, you just download.