> if only I could change something in the registry (?) to make IE treat 
> .xsl files
> like .xml but I don't think that's possible
> 

don't know if doing so will solve your problem, but if you change
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.xsl/(Standard) to equal xmlfile it will inherit your xml
settings. if that's what you're trying to do (haven't really followed this
thread)