IE9/Win7Pro64 grayed out menus

Howdy,
I have been having some weird problems with IE9 lately. Some of them may have always existed while others I know are new.

Some menu items (for example QUICK TABS, SECURITY REPORT, & INTERNATIONAL WEBSITE are all grayed out under VIEW - yes I enabled ctl-Q/Quick Tabs under INTERNET TOOLS).

Another quirk is that when I click a link it no longer opens in a new tab, but opens in the same tab I am in. e.g. I do a GOOGLE on STUFF, and click a link to HIKING STUFF. The tab with the google search results no longer displays the search results but opens the page on HIKING STUFF. IE used to open links in a new tab (yes, TABBED BROWSING is enabled), leaving the search results tab alone, and opening a enw tab for HIKING STUFF.

I am pretty sure I must have mistakenly changed something, but can't figure out what. I would think all the TAB related stuff would be under the TOOLS | INTERNET OPTIONS | TABS | SETTINGS menu, but I can't find anything wrong there.

Oh, and yes, I have disabled all plugins and run IE as admin.

Any ideas appreciated.

have you tried uninstalling IE9, deleting all user settings and preferences under the program files directory and then re-installing it? This will probably be the easiest method to save you hunting around looking for a certain option, and wont take that much time to do :) let me know how you get on with this