Glitch opening programs from Desktop

[forceten32]

I have XP2, IE7 on a new laptop.

I can only open a program via desktop icon if I launch IE7 first (includes
icons on quick launch), e.g. my amazon icon will open and freeze. I click
the frozen window to close and get the non-responsive message and then the
'report to ms' box.

But if I choose IE7 first from quick launch, IE7 opens fine and then any
other icon chosen from desktop will open as a separate tab on the IE7 page.

Is this a glitch or do I need a settings change?

Thanks

Fred