Well duh on me. I thought I read the whole thing. Sorry Sam. I have IE8 on my machine but don't use it. I am a Firefox user primarily and use Chrome from time to time.
Maybe you should just remove it and reinstall it.
Yes, same thing as XP. And there is constant nagging asking if you want the changes made to the system but that can be turned off. I don't recommend turning it off but turning it down is ok.