IE8 favorites open randomly in tab or to new window

Please can someone assist with this matter regarding Internet Explorer 8: my Favorites should (always) open in the tab I'm in. However sometimes they open to a new Window which makes no sense to me. I haven't been able to discover a pattern when and why they open to a new Window.

How can I fix this ? I'm on IE 8.0.7601.17514

Go to Tools > Internet Options
General Tab
Click the Settings button under the "Tabs" section
The last two sections - try when a popup is encountered ... always open popups in a new tab rather than let IE decide and Open links from other programs in ... the current tab or window

Hi TrainableMan, many thanks for your response! Unfortunately it's not working as I hoped it would.

When I do that, favorites open in a new tab or in the tab I'm on (still randomly). To make matters worse (well relatively speaking, this whole thing isn't the end of the world ofcourse, it's just... annoying) Links from Outlook and other programs now open into a tab as well. I want links from other programs to open in a fresh new window, because when you have multiple IE screens open like I normally do, you never know where it's going to add it.

So, to summarize:

- Favorites: to tab I'm in
- Other programs: clean new Instance of IE

It seems like this is not possible eventhough to me, this is the only way it makes sense and you can predict what it will do. No surprises, it saves a little time every time.

I just spent a few minutes continuosly opening and closing favorites, it does seem to do work well most of the time, but then all of a sudden - Boom - new window

Absolutely no pattern to discover why and when. I'd say 1 in 10 or so go to a new window, they are not always the same sites.

I'm afraid I am a Firefox user myself so I have never really noticed what you described. In Firefox I only see a new window if one isn't open or if I right-click and choose open in a new window; otherwise programs and favorites all go to a new tab.

Has it ever worked like you want it to in IE 8? Or is this a difference between versions, maybe you migrated from XP with IE 6? You do know that IE9 is available, it may function differently.

I can't duplicate your situation where a new window opens randomly so I don't know what else to tell you besides try the various settings in tabs that I mentioned above. Hopefully some actual IE users will come along with an idea.

I did migrate from IE6 / XP last week, so I'm in the first week where you're just busy making the settings act normal, like you were used to.

Unfortunately at the office, we have to use IE for many reasons and can't use FF, so I'm stuck with it as the default browser.

It's remarkable how in Firefox this can be fixed in a matter of seconds (just tested)

There's more stuff going on that it shouldn't do, for instance rightclicking on items in the start menu isn't possible. I thought this was just Microsoft sillyness, but the guys who installed the computer might have messed up somewhere as well, because it shouldn't do that

The problem of favorites open inpredicted in a new window or in the same tab persist.

I appreciate any input on this matter.


I've attached a screenshot of my tab settings

First of all I would recommend upgrading to IE9. It's a quicker browser than IE8.

IE has some quirks I don't like, Favorites is one of them and lack of Themes, background colors, etc.

It's just a matter of adapting to the Favorites menu which takes time. I use the Favorites sidebar feature since I have a very large monitor.