Tabbed browsing in IE 7

Microsoft has introduced tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer 7. Although not as customisable as offered by Mozilla Firefox and Opera, Microsoft's offering does allow the user to control the behaviour of the tabs to some extent.

Warning: When working in the Windows Registry be careful when changing setting, the wrong setting could cause your operating system not to boot.

To enable tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer 7

* Use a registry editing tool to navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing
* Insert or change a value with the following details:
Data Type:
DWORD
Value Name:
Enabled
Value:
1
* Close any opened Internet Explorer windows for the change to take effect.

Internet Explorer 7 also allows the user to decide how new tabs are handled. One customisation is to control whether focus is automatically shifted to new tabs on creation.

To enable focus shift to newly-created tabs in Internet Explorer 7

* Use a registry editing tool to navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing
* Insert or change a value with the following details:
Data Type:
DWORD
Value Name:
OpenInForeground
Value:
1
* Close any opened Internet Explorer windows for the change to take effect.

Another similar customisation forces new pop-ups (assuming, of course, that pop-ups are not turned off) to be opened in a new tab.

To open all pop-ups in a new tab:

* Use a registry editing tool to navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing
* Insert or change a value with the following details:
Data Type:
DWORD
Value Name:
PopupsUseNewWindow
Value:
1
* Close any opened Internet Explorer windows for the change to take effect.

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