Why would you want to delete it permanently? You might need another browser incase something like this happens again.

You can't get rid of IE though, so don't worry. if you go to the control panel, then add and remove programs, you can find Add/Remove Windows Components. IE is probably unchecked, so recheck it.

Failing that, you could start/run C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and drag the iexplore.exe icon to the desktop to copy a shortcut. Or you use use start/run iexplore to open it, or going back to the add remove programs list, find program access and defaults, and set IE as the default browser.

But I think your firefox problem is likely easy to fix. Right click where an image would be, if it says "Block images from http://addresshere" with a checkmark, just uncheck it. If it doesn't, try tools/options/web features and make sure that 'load images' is checked, but 'for originating site only' isn't.

You could always try using Lynx. I hear it's very lightweight, and has withstood the test of time rather well.
</sarcasm>