IE is nothing else than an "internet targeted" part of the regular windows file explorer!
Actually "c:\windows\explorer.exe" which manages the 'desktop', 'startbar' and 'file windows' calls & switches to a separate application called "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe" to deal with the internet bit, which has its hooks embedded in the file explorer(deliberately so it cannot be uninstalled and remains the dominant app). Thats partly the problem. Anyway, whats KDE got to do with it? KDE is not dominating the market. I think you are confusing the issue of what a monopoly is and how it works. What would you have us replace Windows with?
Windows of course!, but as just an "Operating System" like it is supposed to be, not as a huge "bargain bundle" of proprietry standards, non-'OS-critical' related applications, codecs, in-your-services etc.