I.E. 11 New Tabs vs. New Windows

[hlewton]

Using I.E. 11 I thought unless told otherwise additional links opened up on a new tab but I find that often times going to another site will open up a new instance of I.E. 11. Under Tabbed Browsing Settings I have it set to open up new links in the current window. I don’t see any other setting that would affect this and make I.E. open up another window. Am I missing some setting that will assure that all new links are opened up in the current window?

Thanks

[HansV]

There are two settings involved:

S0465.png

The designer of a web page can specify that a page opens as a popup. The setting under "When a popup is encountered" determines how popups are opened.
Keep in mind that popup windows are often intended to have a limited size (so that you can still see the previous page behind it); if you make IE open popups in a new tab, the visual effect will probably not be as intended.

The behavior of non-popup pages is determined by the setting under "Open links from other programs in".

[hlewton]

Thanks Hans but I think I may not have explained it well enough. I have my options set exactly as you show them in the attachment but I am not talking about pop ups. Let give an example that I hope clears it up what I am asking. Lets say I have this window open replying to this thread then while it is still open I click on a shortcut that takes me to a WEB mail service like Yahoo. It often times will not open that Yahoo in a new tab but instead opens it in a whole new window. So I have two instances of I.E. open and have to click between open windows instead of just clicking on a tab in one window. I would like to eliminate this from happening. I would like for I.E. to just open Yahoo in the same window but on a new tab.

[HansV]

Is this a desktop shortcut? If so, right-click it and select Properties from the context menu. What is the Target of the shortcut?

[hlewton]

It is a desktop short and the target is https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_ve ... m&.intl=us I guess that is what you mean. That is the URL where it takes me. But I just used that as an example.

I get an email each day that comes from Yahoo news called Your Daily Stories For "Day Of The Week." I can be reading multiple stories from that email and each one opens from a link within the email and each opens on its own tab in one I.E. instance. If while reading those news stories I would click on the shortcut that brings me here "http://www.eileenslounge.com/index.php" it would open a new instance of I.E. and it does this pretty consistently. I'm not at all sure if this only happens when I am reading the stories in Yahoo news but I do know it does happen then. I believe I have seem multiple instances of I.E. open even when Yahoo news was not involved but I cannot say that for sure.

BTW I do not have quotes in my desktop shortcut to Eileen's Lounge but without them in this post it created a link that did not show the URL so I put quotes around it so the entire URL could be seen as my shortcut.

[HansV]

I'm afraid I can't explain that, so I don't have a suggestion to change this behavior either. Sorry.

[hlewton]

OK thanks. I have searched the WEB and apparently it happens to a lot of people but I have not found it for I.E. 11 yet. I'll look at older version's answers to see if there is anything I can use to solve this.

[DaveA]

You are still mixing links and shortcuts. The links are controlled by the IE Options, where the shortcuts are controlled by the properties of the shortcut within Windows.

What happens when you use a link in the Favorites?

[HansV]

Hi Dave,

I'm not certain that it should make a difference. When I open a web page from a desktop shortcut, it opens a new tab in my IE11 window, exactly as hlewton wants.

[hlewton]

Hi Dave,

I'm not certain that it should make a difference. When I open a web page from a desktop shortcut, it opens a new tab in my IE11 window, exactly as hlewton wants.

It does the same for me too except for the times when it acts as I tried to describe above. Most of the time I can have many, many tabs open within one window but occasionally I will see two windows but after searching the WEB I guess I'm lucky because in previous versions many people had hundreds of them open and not because they wanted that many windows open. Never did see a fool-proof solution nor this problem mentioned with I.E. 11 but it was in I.E. 10.

I do not have anything in Favorites since I clear all that each time I exit I.E. so I never open any site that way.

[DaveA]

I do not have anything in Favorites since I clear all that each time I exit I.E. so I never open any site that way.

Do you mean History and NOT Favorites, as you must save things to Favorites?

[hlewton]

I do not have anything in Favorites since I clear all that each time I exit I.E. so I never open any site that way.

Do you mean History and NOT Favorites, as you must save things to Favorites?

No I think I mean both. I clear the history on each exit but I never add or use Favorites. Upon checking I do not see anything under the Favorite drop down menu except what I.E. 11 itself put there which is not any links just folders.

[hlewton]

Here is an update on this "problem." Since the MS tech told me I should not be using I.E. 11 with Win 7 and after he reverted my machine to I.E. 10 this "problem" has gone away. Strange!

[HansV]

Let's hope it'll remain that way!

[hlewton]

Let's hope it'll remain that way!

Well unfortunately it did not. It is now doing the same as I.E. 11 but not as often it seems.