Any MSWindows/IE geniuses out there?

I know it's impolite to use this as a trolling mechanism, but
I've spent all day recovering from near disaster. Of course, it's Windows related. I could use some help, or at least some commiseration.

First a (hopefully) easy question: Why won't my IE open up a second window? As in, if I'm on a website and click on a link that wants to open up a second window, it builds the outline of the window, but then just hangs there. I have IE 6 now, with the SP fix. I use Mozilla at the same page and no problem opening the second window.

The obvious work-around is... to keep using Mozilla! But there's a rub. I just took my DSL provider's offer to upgrade to the SBC Yahoo DSL deal. Main incentive: I get 750MB of free web storage space. To use all the features of SBCYahoo, you have to use their new custom browser. Which is, you guessed it, a shell over IE. So, until I figure out why IE is acting up, I'm out of luck using all the SBCYahoo crap.

And may I say it's very nice of Windows not to allow me the priviledge of uninstalling and reinstalling IE. I can only "Repair" it - which actually just reloads an older version. Doing so put my Outlook 2000 out of commission. Nice repair.

Oh and all the Java VM options are enabled. I'm stuck...