Thoughts from the EPS Windows Server Performance Team
Tabbed browsing is a new feature in Internet Explorer 7. One question we are frequently asked by administrators is - "How do I control the tab behavior for my users to present a consistent experience?" We are also asked the same thing by developers who want to leverage this functionality for their applications. However, it is important to note that IE7 Tab Control is driven by the user (or their administrator) and not the application developer!
To open a new "blank" tab, the user can either use the Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut, or click on the blank tab in the IE browser as shown below.
Other keyboard & mouse shortcuts for tab control are as follows:
Keyboard shortcuts
Mouse shortcuts
OK - so now that you know how to navigate using the tabs, how can you manually control the IE7 tabbed browsing settings? If you launch the Internet Options applet from within Control Panel, or from the Tools --> Options menu within IE itself, you will see a new area on the General tab called Tabs.
Clicking on the Settings button brings up the following options dialog to govern the tabbed browsing options that can be manipulated by the user to suit their needs:
So now that we know how to manually set these options, how are they managed from an Enterprise level? Here's a breakdown of the options, and the registry location / GPO area to set these. The Registry Locations can be set in either of the following Registry Locations:
The Group Policies that are available can be set in the following locations:
Finally, there is one other registry value to keep in mind. Many administrators want to set the "Don't show this page again" on the Welcome to Tabbed Browsing Page so that users are not presented with this screen:
The value to set is as follows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing\ (if you want to make the change system-wide. If not, set the value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER)Value Name: ShowTabsWelcomeValue Type: DWORDSet the value to 0 so that the users are not presented with this page. Set the value to 1 so that users are presented with this page. If the browser is configured to open the homepage, then that page will be displayed when a new tab is opened by the user.
And that wraps up this post about IE7 Tabbed Browsing. Administrators - please remember that when configuring IE Tabbed Browsing for your users that you need to ensure that your configuration provides the best browsing experience for the users to enable them to use IE7 in the most efficient manner!
Additional Resources:
- CC Hameed
How do i turn on my tabs for broswing the internet on IE6.0?
I'm having the same problem as Sharyn and can't find a consistent solution in any forum. I may have anywhere from two to six tabs open at any given time. When I try to pull up a new tab, the entire browser closes. This problem is fairly consistent - my browser has closed on my at least 10 times in the space of 12 work hours.
Hi Marie,
glad to someone else with my problem too - i haven't found any answers yet -- hope you can.
I am having the same problem as Sharyn & Marie. Is there any help out here?
What is usemruswitching? It exists as a DWORD value in my HKCU\Software\Microsoft\IE\TabbedBrowsing registry key.
I found this trying to diagnose why I have no "open in new tab" in my IE7 context menu. I have no Google or other 3rd party toolbar.
When the open links from other programs "in a new window" option is set and I open a link from Outlook 2007 email, it first restores the minimized browser to the desktop and then opens the new browser window cascaded over the first one.
How can I get URLs from other programs to open in a new browser while leaving the previous browser minimized?
ctrl + N will open the current webpage in a new browser window. Is there anyway to open the current page in new Tab instead?
-Ted
I have the same problem as Sharyn, Marie & Nancy: opening a new tab occasionally (seems like about ~10% of the time) causes IE7 to disappear!
Using XP SP2, fully patched, have run anti-spyware and anti-virus scans.
I know this post adds little to finding a solution, but I do want to flag it as an issue. So far I've only seen a few reports but no solutions.
Any troubleshooting advice welcome.
Eureka! I removed Epson Web to Print from IE7 and the problem went away.
Sharyn, Marie & Nancy: hopefully this helps you!
Ya by remove the Epson Web to print really help me for the problem face by Sharyn, Marie & Nancy. Thank lanW.
I have the problem that the first poster explains a fix for, however, I have a Logitech mouse and Logitech software installed, and it does not seem to provide me with an option to alter any setting on my scroll wheel/middle mouse button.
I could open new background tabs just fine by clicking down my scroll wheel on URL's before I formatted and re-installed my computer. Nothing has changed - The same computer, the same mouse, the same drivers and the same WinXP Pro CD - but now, when I click down my middle mouse button (scroll wheel) windows opens up 'My documents' folder
THanks for the tips on removing Epson web to print.. i hope it fixed my problem -- we'll see...
sharyn
Is it possible to disable "Close Other Tabs" or get an "Are You Sure" warning?
Thomas, I found out how to solve your problem!
I had it too, and turns out it's something about a program called "Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard".
Didn't go into the specifics, seems it's some sort of legit microsoft driver related program.
Kill it (the process name is MMKeybd.exe or something), and the middle mouse will go back to normal.
Hi all,
is there a way to keep the quick tab page when changing to another application? Maybe there is an undocumented registry setting?
Actually I want to display the quick tab on a second display while working on the first display.