I’ve never had this happen before and have no idea what’s going on. To start, I’m using XP Home.
Every now and then (maybe half the time) I can click a link and the new window opens. The rest of the time I have to right-click and select ‘open in a new window’. I haven’t added any programs and I don’t have any malware. Any ideas what to look at in the settings?
Most of the time it’s down to the code on the individual page using the ‘target’ attirubte. For example, on the SDMB, the links contain an instruction telling the browser to open in a new page, usually in the form:
<A HREF="the page address" target="_blank">Link text</A>
On Hotmail there’s some other skulduggery at large. On Google it’s a setting in ‘Preferences’ on the Google site. But if you’re using Internet Explorer, I don’t know of any setting that can cause this to work automatically for every site.
Argh. Sounds like something I’ll just have to put up with. It happens on news sites (FOX and CNN to keep it bipartisan) 
as well as right here on the boards. Oh well, more an annoyance but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Thanks for the suggestions, though. 
One piece of advice would be to download one of the newer, better browsers. I’ve been using Firefox for a few weeks now on my PC, and it really is so much better than IE. It has tabbed browsing, where you can open multiple tabs behind the tab you’re browsing. Lots of customizable settings.
I tried Firefox. What I don’t like is that I’m so used to having my “favorites” window at the left, that without it I just find the screen too distracting. And a pain in the ass when my ADD kicks in and can’t switch sites quickly.
In IE, if you use the shift key and the click, it will launch the link in a new window.
(Another doper taught me this trick, I now use it all the time)