It's always something with Internet Explorer

Yeah, unfortunately the IE crops out once in a while. But most times you can recover the session.

Hi you've probably have the most unwanted security suite installed that anyone would have,
Mcafee is very bad at updating and is the most windows unfriendly security available,
I would seriously consider switching,
I believe your troubleshooting is going to be tough because Mcafee has released a 64 bit version
Also you didn't say which email service or which version of Internet explorer ?
See what this does,
Use No Add-ons mode/ Click the Start button and type in the search box,
Internet explorer

Click on the suggestion (No Add-ons) or it’s located at,
Start/ All programs/ Accessories folder/ System tools folder/ No add-ons.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/manage-add-ons#ie=ie-10-win-7
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows7/How-to-manage-add-ons-in-Internet-Explorer-9
If using ie10 the first link will apply to ie9 as well,
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie-crashes-stops-working#ie=ie-10-win-7

Activate EPM if using a 64 bit version of windows,
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/280434-internet-explorer-10-enable-32-bit-64-bit-ie10-windows-7-a.html#post2312336

I doubt that McAfee is the culprit. Although you are right that McAfee is not that swift, but in this case it is probably not it's fault. I have the same IE problem at times on systems with MSE and NIS. I think it is an IE problem.

I'm not at all sure what NIS is pardon my ignorance
I use several email services ie has never produced the crash outlook.com/ gmail/ (yahoo albeit not often) and office outlook 2007 through hostmonster,
Cheers.

From time to time, the IE crashes on me too. But usually I can recover the session. This happens on various occasions, but not with Outlook which I don't use.

Okay thanks Derek
Well not withstanding both Norton and Mcafee/ Avast/ AVG and most likely more have created versions they believe compatible with the 64 bit version of ie,
Which makes both very difficult to troubleshoot or isolate from normal mode=EPM and No add-ons mode is Out because of this.
Safe mode with networking isn't a viable option because of the nature and possible corruption from email services,
I use MSE so can't say I've had any issues,
Look forward to an email service update from the o.p.
Cheers.

But as always you can try this method,
Add the Run box to the Start menu list,
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/559-start-menu-add-run-button.html

Open the Run command and Paste this into it and Okay,
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -extoff