Tab Groups in IE 7

There are two types of Tab Groups in Internet Explorer 7 - Grouped Favorites and Multiple Home Pages.  IE 7 also introduces a feature called Restore Last Tab Group.

Grouped Favorites

If you constantly open the same four or five web sites for a particular project, you may want to save those sites in a 'Grouped Favorite'. This will allow you to quickly come back to these sites with one click!

Open each page that you would like to have in your Favorites Group in its own tab. Once you have done this, click on the Favorites menu, then click on Add Tab Group to Favorites.

Decide on a Folder Name.

Now open the Favorites Center by clicking on the star on the toolbar.   Navigate to the folder containing the shortcuts.  Click on the blue right-pointing arrow that appears on the right hand edge of the folder entry.

All favorites stored in the folder will now open at the same time in their own tab.

Multiple home pages

Within Internet Explorer 7, you have the ability to designate several home pages, all of which will open in a separate tab. To create multiple home pages, go to TOOLS, INTERNET OPTIONS, and select the GENERAL Tab.  Creating multiple home pages is as simple as pressing enter after entering each URL, one URL per line.

Internet Explorer will open all of your home pages when you start Internet Explorer or when you click the Home button on the toolbar.

If you wish, you can set Internet Explorer to open only your first home page when it starts.  You will still be able to open all home pages by clicking on the Home button after the option is enabled.  Click on Tools, Internet Options, and then click on the Settings button in the Tabs section.

Click on the drop-down arrow on the right edge of the Home button to access even more options.  You can open just one home page, add or change a home page, remove a home page or remove all home pages.

If you click on Add or Change Home Page, Internet Explorer will offer to add the page that is currently being displayed as a Home Page:

Restore Last Tab Group

When you close Internet Explorer, you are prompted to close all Tabs (unless you have disabled the option).  Click on the Show Options button to reveal an option to "Open these the next time I use Internet Explorer".  If you turn on this option when closing IE, the next time that IE is started it will open all the normal home pages PLUS all tabs that were open when IE was last shut down. Internet Explorer's home page settings will not be changed.

If you have disabled the option, you can enable it again by selecting TOOLS, INTERNET OPTIONS, and the GENERAL tab. In the TABS section, click on SETTINGS and enable the Tabbed Browsing Settings.