Problem Solved !!! I am now able to go to a new link in IE and have it open in a new tab. Upgraded it to IE-11 and that also works
Thank You Joesephur. Your list for re-registering the IE components obviously worked in spite of the error message. I presume from the discussion between you and Neemobeer that I was denied access only to the last line of the list and not the whole list as I had assumed earlier.
Am I correct on that assumption. I would be very interested to know what was causing the blank tabs in the first place and what actually fixed it
Thanks for your help