Internet Explorer 6 - clicking shortcuts....

[MIDIman]

Say I have three IE6 windows open. If I click on a shortcut from my bookmarks in the third IE window, it will open the shortcut in the first window. I'll hit stop stop stop - then go back to the window and try again...then it will open it in window #2....stop stop - then finally it opens in the third window. Why does it do this?!

Also - if I have just a single window open and it is working on loading a page and I click a shortcut in Bookmarks, it will *always* open the shortcut in a new window. Very annoying when all I did was accidentally click a wrong shortcut.


I don't understand this one at all, but its been making me angry every so often when doing multiple browsing in WinXP. I don't remember this ever being a problem in IE 5.5. I didn't really see anything about this in Internet Options. Other than "Reuse windows for launching shortcuts" which I have checked. According to the What is this help, all this refers to are other Internet-aware programs, like Outlook, Eudora, AIM, etc.

:|

 

[absentminded]

have you applied the update for IE 6?

 

[Pqee]

This is a known bug in IE 6. It happened in IE 5.0, was fixed in 5.5, then happened again in a couple betas of IE6 as well as the final. I have yet to hear of any fixes coming from MS though.

Only suggestion I've heard it to drag your link into the window you want it to open.

 

[altonb1]

Okay, first things first: There is a registry key that you can "tweak" that will force Windows to open desktop shortcuts (or shortcuts from other apps) in a new IE window. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact key. But...I looked and believe that you need to go to:

Hkey_Current_user\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and look for AllowWindowReuse

double click this entry and change the 1 to a 0. This should fix the shortcuts/links problem. I use Eudora for e-mail and also have a few Anandtech thread shortcuts on my desktop. now when i click these, they always open a new window instead of using an existing window.

However, there is also a little trick that I learned from a co-worker last year sometime. if you hold down the left shift (either shift key?) before you click a link, it will open the link in a new window as well.

Hope this helps!

 

[MIDIman]

thanks altonb1, but you have it backwards...allow me to make this more clear.

when I had IE5.5 in Win98se, this is the way clicked shortcuts worked:

1) If clicked from the desktop or any internet program other than Internet Explorer, the shortcut would open in the last window you were viewing, be it the first, second, or third, even if it was currently loading a webpage.

2) If clicked in the bookmarks, the shortcut opened in the current explorer window being viewed, even if it was currently loading something.


The problem is - in both of these cases in IE6, the shortcuts are opening in the first available explorer window. if the first aviailable window is currently loading a page, it will open in the next available window. if all windows are currently loading pages, it will open in a new window.

Also - the reg key you mentioned is the same as Options->Advanced->"Reuse windows for launching shortcuts," which I mentioned in my first thread. Disabling this will force any external internet aware software to always open in a new window, which is not necessarily what i want. In IE5.5, I could choose a browser window, goto the internet aware software and it would always load in the browser window I was just viewing


I'm still looking for a fix for this, though I think the latest security patch (which includes other fixes I can't find documented) has possibly fixed one of these problems...still testing it.