IE10 "Open in new tab" gives blank page

I have been doing some experimenting with the tabs of the browser (now IE9).

There appears to be a non-reporting error occurring when an attempt to open a new webpage in another tab is made. The tab is created, with its (blank) page. The (new) address is not placed in the address field but the address field remains transparent.

I discovered this while clicking back and forth between tabs. Whenever I click on an empty tab that I have created, the address bar does not change from what was there for the previously displayed tab.

So I now suspect that something in the system is causing an error to occur during the opening of a new tab. This is not unique to IE10 but, for me, also occurs in IE9. Reading posts in some forums from other people suggests that the same problem also occurs in IE8.

But does this get me any closer to a solution?

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Some of my assumptions (conclusions?) seem to be confirmed among the replies. The issue appears to have a range of causes and remedies. I just haven't found the right combination yet!

With two days of stuffing around, I've gotten behind in what I'm supposed to be doing. The computer is a tool and, with a deadline of tonight, I've had to focus on getting some work done. All the time, cursing Internet Explorer. My son has suggested switching to FireFox, which I may have to do yet.

@UsernameIssues:
Wise words about backing up the system drive. It's happening right now.

I found some discussion last night to do with TabProcGrowth. The parameter is absent from my HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main I'll have to get a better handle of what it does before inserting/changing it.

The only occurence I found was TabProcGrowth=Medium as REG_SZ under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UnattendBackup\TabProcessGrowth

@ICit2lol:
The probem seems to be independent of the IE version: I've already reverted back to IE9 and the problem persists. Blowing IE9 away altogether in the registry is an option which I won't discount but I'll put it near the bottom of my list! At some point I may get desperate enough to do this. After all, I used to have to reload XP every 18 or 24 months.

@ThrashZone:
Thanks for the links. When I click on each one, it is a little reminder of the problem: I get a new, empty tab and then have to copy and paste to URL into the new address field . I'll digest these and report back in the next few days.

I manually added the TabProcGrowth Value to the Main Key inside a Virtual Machine and, while it did no harm, I cannot be sure what it might do in combination with the other settings on your computer.

ThrashZone said:

See what this comes up with and post the results,
autoruns,
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
What to Not uncheck,
http://forum.sysinternals.com/faq-common-autoruns-issues_topic4719.html
Because No Add-ons mode works,
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -extoff
I'd also see what Clean boot produces,
Clean boot,
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/179159-troubleshoot-application-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html
I'd also give this a try,
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/98056-sf-ie-restorator-troubleshooting-general-issues-ie.html

Well, I'm back on the case.

• First, the assumption that "...Because No Add-ons mode works..." is not correct: to date nothing makes "Open in New Tab" work.
• I tried a clean boot. Result: no change
• I tried the "Restorator" (Love that word!). Result: It didn't. (Tried Reregister 32-bit IE on 32-bit Win7 and also Reset IE options).
• Finally, I Ran AutoRuns and saved (what I assume is) the output to a file called Autorans.arn. But now I have a problem. The html "Reply to Thread" editor can't upload the file to the forum. When I click on the Attachments (paperclip) icon, it opens a new (blank) tab , reminding me once again of the problem my computer has. Right clicking on the icon does not provide a "Copy shortcut" option, so I'm can't post the file for others to cast an opinion. The file appears to be a binary format.

After a week of thought, I don't think TabProcGrowth is going to help, unless some hidden feature is corrupted. I'm only trying to open the second tab of the browser, after all!

Blowing away the registry entries for IE and reloading IE is looking more attractive but I'll delay that until Sunday (local time).

A final(?) question: IE9 or IE10 after the proposed data deletion?

Thanks for the additional suggestions A Guy. By the time I read your post (on a separate machine), I was already in the process of blowing IE9 away and reloading a squeaky clean copy.

Oh brother! I'm having so much fun - NOT.

I downloaded Microsoft's IE10 installer, backed up the registry and then deleted references to Internet Explorer under USERS and LOCAL MACHINE. Some entries were a bit pedantic about ownership but I eventually removed them all.

At this point I installed IE10 using the previously downloaded file. Perhaps I should have rebooted first?

Thinking it through after the event, perhaps I should have installed IE9 at this point because I'd backed up the registry when IE9 was loaded.

Regardless, the exercise has proven to be UNsuccessful . The original problem remained present: directing IE to open a webpage in a new tab results in a blank page! Not what I expected.

@A Guy - Looking back at earlier posts, System File Checker had been suggested before and I seem to have overlooked it when suggestions were coming in left, right and centre.

I'll go back through the entire thread and check / follow all outstanding suggestions.

BTW. You're correct. If I had been able to, the reply tool would not have allowed me to upload a .arn file. However, I did not get presented with an uploader, since it opened in a new (blank) tab.