All versions of Windows do still have Internet Explorer installed, just with the most recent ones you can turn the icon to launch it on/off (it doesn't actually uninstall Internet Explorer because many application uses basic built in web controls which in turns use Internet Explorer, like SE).

You said you haven't got Service Pack 1 though, so I'd recommend simply getting your Windows up to date, i.e. install Service Pack 1 as well as all additional Windows updates and quite likely one of those will fix your problem. If it's still broken though, just update to the the latest version of Internet Explorer which will update the built in browser libraries on your computer that SE is trying to use. You don't actually have to use the browser so you can delete the icon afterwards if you want.