WinXP CD burning capabilities no longer functional after I..

Until a few weeks ago, I regularly used Roxio EasyCreator 5 to burn CD-
Rs on my Yahama FIZEN burner. I then downloaded and installed IE7,
and began to have problems.

I upgraded to Roxio EasyCreator 9, uninstalled that when it didn't
work, got Nero -- and that didn't work either. Happily, I was able to
System Restore to the pre Roxio upgrade configuration.

The CD burning capabilities built into WinXP don't work now, either.
I notice that this software is licensed from Roxio.

Other users on other boards have pointed the finger on IE7. Is this
the culprit? If so, will Microsoft issue a patch so that their own
WinXP CD burning capabilities will become functional again?

I'm reluctant to point the finger at the drive or the disks. The
disks always have worked well with this drive. Previous problems --
the last experienced over a year ago -- always have been software
related. Roxio needed an update because of a patch to Windows.