Java and shockwave

I have been having quite a few problems with my browser IE7 for about a month
now. Several pages never load properly. I spoke to a friend who is more
technical and he advised me to check my 'java' settings. i checked but the
settings were not there. I also tried installing the shockwave, but the page
refused to recognise my browser. I also tried resetting the browser to its
original settings, but it did not solve the problem. I even have trouble
loading microsoft.com pages and i have had to use apple's safari for this
discussion as IE7 would not load the page.

I have actually noticed that my laptop has the same issue. I run vista on
both systems. Can anyone please help.

Thanks