I never used Windows Vista (other than dealing with couple of boxes when personal contacts got it pre-installed with their laptop/notebooks and needed some assistance to configure them) and after using Windows XP for almost 10 years, expected Windows 7 also to have the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop. If you “still” remember, this IE icon on the desktop was truly special, as a right-click ->properties allowed the user to straightaway interact with the IE settings. With Windows 7 Internet Explorer icon is not a default desktop icon. Instead a user must create a shortcut if he/she wants an easy access to IE! Read the explanation for this from Microsoft here