I want to keep foxfire and get rid of IE I have tried to remove it from the add and remove program

Simply you can't, as it is so inbedded into windows you would completely break other functionality.

IE is also the same program that opens when you click on "my computer" it doubles as the explorer used to find files on your PC.

All very true above and I agree! So, to put it in short and simple here though, if you get rid of it from your computer, you're computer ain't going to be able to function!