I have similar problems. IE7 crashes shortly after I open the browser -
performing an illegal operation. Seems to be only when surfing on the
internet - using it for e.g. google desktop seems not to cause problems.

Hi Phil -

I, too, am experiencing very frequent crashes of IE7. If I type in an
address and hit return it will crash. If I select links I have saved in the
Links bar, it crashes. It's very frustrating. I even tried to go to the MS
site for support and it crashes... At the moment, it is staying up for me to
post but I expect it to crash again. I think I will downgrade to IE 6.

I am less than impressed with IE7.

Mine has done nothing but crash since I upgraded. I can get on the internet
via AOL, so I don't think it is my computer.

Interestingly, after reading the comments here I went back to the email from
MS Notify to click that they did not answer my question -- at which point IE
7 CRASHED!

Hi,
Go to www.enhanceie.com >>> Troubleshooting

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

Wait till you see how horrible vista is designed... lol...

Its funny... they say if you dont have genuine vista goes into reduced
functionality mode..

well here is the news ! vista is reduced funtionality from right out of the
box experience!!!

I have to say that I agree. The GUI is cool, with all the tabbed windows,
etc. But I have only used it 3 days and it has already crashed at least 7
times. I am using gmail and doing a lot of navigating to URL inside of email.
When I go to close a window, BAM. Crash. And its nasty sometimes because both
the "send error" dialog and the Dr. Watson hang, and I either have to use
Task Manager to shut down IE or else re-boot.

My solution: Uninstall and go back to IE6.

I nmy case it seems to happen alot when I'm opening a PDF file with Adobe
reader. Some of the other crashes have just happened with no real cause or
notice. I cant track them. I can do the "open with out add on's" deal and do
the task that caused the crash, but I want the help of the addon's, don't ya
know. I can write a letter by hand also with out the help of EMAIL, but Im
trying to live in the NOW.
Yep, I'm looking for IE 6 untill they get this "release/beta" working.
Steve

I am having the same problem since the last round of updates. I have moved on
to Firefox, which seems to be much more stable

I only have a suggestion but for the IE team: That they implement "restore
session" functionality similar to what Firefox does when you start it after a
crash.

Freequent IE7 crashes are more painful when you are using it to study a
subject and you have dozens of tabs open tabs of links you have collected,
but not saved!

Oh yeah - same here, and it seems to crash in very random ways; sometimes
just sitting on a website doing (what appears to be) nothing, it dies.  
Sometimes there'll be these clicks like I've hit a link when I haven't, it
dies.   I've sent a brazilian "error reports" as well; obviously the
receiving end must be having IE7 crash issues too, because nothing seems to
be being done in the annals of The Cave of the Beast (read:  Microsoft)  to
resolve this problem.

I was very reluctant to switch over from IE6; I eventually got hooked on the
tabbed browsing thing, and I'm sure you all can relate how frustrating it is
to have several tabs open, receive the "Internet Explorer has encountered an
error" message, and lose all that work.  Whatever happened to "lemon laws?"  
You know, if people were sold automobiles in the same fashion as the software
weenies keep shoving new, "improved" versions down our collective throats,
they'd certainly be up in arms.  It's borderline criminal the way operating
systems can be sold with as many software bugs, security vulnerabilities,
etc. as they can.  Fix it on the fly?  Don't even get me started on Vista
(codename:  Longhorn - remember when that demo crashed on Bill Gates?) - or
why a user has to click the "Start" button to turn off the computer (I know,
I know - it makes complete sense for the software weenie who is sitting
underneath flourescent illumination for 29 hours a day, vitamins boiling off
his/her skin as they code away the rationale that the user is starting the
shutdown cycle...)  

...all which proves that the two most-common elements in the universe
remain hydrogen and stupidity.

vento, ergo suum.

IE 7 crashes very frequently for me as well. My computer is new and has had
full anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spam software installed from day
one...and not the free kind, I'm running a purchased/premium version of AVG.
I run scans daily. There is no malware on my computer and IE7 is still highly
unstable. I love the tabbed browsing, but it seems to crash the most often if
I try to switch into a new tab while something is still loading in the
current one.