Ha ha ha ha! You make me laugh! Since when have "Microsoft" and "reliable" ever been together in the same sentence, let alone the same website! But, all joking aside...
I use IE 5.5 and rarely experience problems (which, ironically, contradicts my first sentence in this reply...)
When downloading IE, did you make sure that you selected the option to "Download and Install later"? This way, it doesn't install IE as it's downloading the files, making it a more quick, stable installation.
Quick fix: Get Windows 2000 Comes with IE 5.5, Microsoft's best browser.