Hyperlinks do not work in IE9

Within IE 9, hyperlinks do not work - especially within Gmail email. When clicked, a blank tab opens and goes nowhere. Sometimes (depending on the kind of link), a new tab does not even open, and a notice just indicating "error" shows up in the bottom left. The page remains the same as if nothing was ever clicked.


I have a Windows 7 - 64-bit system. I have tried ALL of the aforementioned suggestions. I've uninstalled (gone back to IE7), then built up through IE8, and upgraded to IE9. The same issue occurs. I"ve attempted multiple restore points.. which seems to do nothing at all.

It appears to be something very specific to IE.

I've been able to install Firefox, and that browser works perfectly. Yet, IE remains useless. I would think that if it was a toolbar issue - installing Firefox would apply the same settings for the possible offending toolbar and cause a similar reaction within Firefox, but this did not occur.

To me, that the error is isolated to IE would indicate a kind of registry issue - specific to IE, correct? Is it .dll related?

I've gone to Internet Options - reverted everything back to Default settings. Which did nothing.

I've very frustrated! Can anyone else shed some light on this?

Does anyone know what registry settings are used to configure hyperlinks specifically for IE? When I click on a link, what triggers the page to attempt to open? Is that a hyperlink setting within the built-in components of IE, or is that controlled by an IE specific registry option?

PLEASSSSSSSSE help!
Thank you!
Katt