Which browser instance runs first?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tarquin Fin- tim- lim- bim- whin- bim- lim- bus- s
  • Start date Start date
T

Tarquin Fin- tim- lim- bim- whin- bim- lim- bus- s

Suppose I have three browsers open and I click on a shortcut that has a url
in it. How does windows/ie6 decide which browser to run the url in? It
doesn't always seem to be the one that is currently active.

Thanks in anticipation :-)
 
This appears to be either completely random or somehow related to
metaphysical factors.

There's a workaround. Drag the link (left click) to the window you want to
use. Or drag the link to the button on the taskbar of the window you want to
use. Hold it on the button until the window restores, then drag it to the
window.

Hope this helps,
Don
 
Completely random?? Somehow related to metaphysical
factors?? Say not so! Surely it's a rational
deterministic system and there must be solid reasons for
everything that happens. (Pardon me while I cough.)

Thanks for reminding us about drag-and-drop, Don. I had
gotten into the habit of bringing up an empty IE window
before clicking, but dragon drop saves a step.

Tarquin (I like your MP-inspired handle, btw), it sounds
like you _usually_ get predictable behaviour, and you
don't really want a 100-page decision tree in answer to
your question; you just find the "wrong" window gets taken
over sometimes. (I lose half-completed forms and Webmail
message windows that way sometimes, and "Back" just gives
me the default form without the content I had
painstakingly typed.) It might help if you can narrow the
question down to specific instances - name names, assuming
the behaviour is 100% reproducible.

You did say, "It doesn't always seem to be the one that is
currently active," so let's take a run at that node in the
decision tree: same window vs. different window. In
general Web-page browsing, one of the biggest controls is
in the HTML code of the links on the page. The default
is "same window" but the author can force "different
window" behaviour by adding 'target="_blank"' to the cross-
reference attributes.

Next, I think I've noticed in my various Webmail
interfaces that if the site is "secure" (there's a padlock
icon in the IE status bar), then a link in an e-mail will
always open in a different window, but if the Webmail site
isn't "secure," then the same link might open in the "same
window" (so I lose the Webmail). But that's just aan
empirical observation; for all I know the real cause is
something else in the Webmail program.

Next: your example was three windows, so, if the link
behaviour is "different window," what determines which of
the other two windows gets taken over, or a new window
opens? This I do not know, but I suspect you might find a
positive or negative correlation with last-used window.
Let us know if you see a pattern there.

Cheers,
the Other Ken
 
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