Do alternate browsers/shells present a security risk?

"The alternative browsers are generally about as secure as the 'non-alternative browsers'; the better known alternatives are often more secure. There could be unaddressed vulnerabilities in any of the browsers.

In the case of IE7, IE7 is more secure than IE6 (but probably not as secure as IE8).

But this depends on your definitions of 'alternative' and 'non-alternative', and maybe on your platform, too. For greater security, run Windows as anyone other than Administrator, and run Unix-like systems as anyone other than root. This dramatically improves security."

IE7Pro is not a browser but an add-on for Internet Explorer increasing the security of Microsoft's web browser (versions 6, 7 and 8) with enhanced blocking functionality, rather than posing a safety risk.