Wow, I totally posted this in the wrong thread a while ago,lol.
I've had IE9 installed for a few days now, and while it is very fast, including initial startup, it is still really plain. I don't mind the placement of the address bar and tabs, although it takes some getting used to.
I haven't had a single problem so far, but i've only used it occasionally just for the heck of it.
I had the issue of the hang when trying to install. I had to go into the user folders and do it that way.....it would just hang about 1/5th of the way when it was checking for the updates or some crap.
Don't expect it to be perfect, but I already like it a lot better than 7 and 8, although, that's not saying much.