My default browser is Firefox. Occasionally there are links in emails that I want to open with IE. Is there a way to do this easily without having to copy and paste the shortcut?

No. You would have to somehow switch default browsers on the fly and I don't think that would be faster or easier. Besides Firefox doesn't use IE as its base like Maxthon or other IE based browsers. And even if you could switch defaults on the fly, it wouldn't take effect until a restart of the browser so go on copying and pasting. Although if there are multiple addresses to copy you can open notepad and put them all in there temporarily for a little convenience.