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
We currently have a GPO in place that forces our business intranet URL to all machines. With IE7 we have some people that have 3 home pages so that they all open up when launching IE. The GPO is wiping out the other preferred home URLS and leaving just the single tab with our intranet URL.
How can I edit the GPO for IE7 users to only force the intranet URL for the first tab withough wiping out any other home pages they may have set?
every time i can choose new tape option,its shows ''welcome to the tabbed browsing'' page.i can click dont show this page,but again shows ''welcome to the tabed browing'' page.how do i fix this issue?
my OS; xp sp3
browser; ie7
how do i have a list of recently open web sites and pictures of said web sites display when i open my home page under new tabs. i had it and lost it for some reason. all i had to do was click on the little box beside my home page tab and the list would pop up and i would select from there and go, i didn't have to go into favorites
thanks, steve
my group of homepage tabs (3) quit working - only got 1st one. This article pointed me to the tab settings where "open only 1st page when internet explorer starts" was checked! How I don't know 'cause b/4 multiple home tabs worked (until I downloaded ebay buyer tool :( :( ) Unchecked and now all working great! THANKS SO MUCH
Hello -
We are running Windows XP (32-bit) with Internet Explorer 8.
I can't modify the registry key mentioned in the article directly (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing), nor can I find the Group Policy settings that are mentioned.
When trying to modify the registry key above directly I get this error message:
"Cannot edit ShortcutBehavior: Error writing the value's new contents"
(I am trying to modify it so that external links open in the active tab instead of opening a new tab). I have administrator rights to the PC, regedt32, and I've even gone so far to see that I have administrator rights to the "TabbedBrowsing" key itself.
I cannot import the change to the registry either.
When trying to implement this change in Group Policy (which would be ideal) I don't see the same options mentioned in the article. For example, the article says I should see a setting titled "Enable Tabbed Browsing" (this is not the setting I want to change, this is just an example). But, in my Group Policy the setting that serves the same function as the one in the article is named "Turn Off Tabbed Browsing". The setting I would actually like to change is the bottom one in the article - it is named "Open Links From Other Programs In", but in my Group Policy I don't see this, nor do I see anything that performs the same function.
Can anyone help with either of these scenarios (i.e. not being able to edit the registry and/or why my Group Policy is useless in this situation)?
Being able to use Group Policy would be the better solution, am I missing something? Does something need to be updated?
I can't believe the amount of time I've spent on this already. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks -
Thank you for that article - it helps a lot!
I tried n no of solutions still i am unable to get tabbed browsing for IE7.... somebody help me plz....