>>
>>I like the default as-is. I just don't want a message requested in one window appearing in another ALREADY OPENED window.
>>
>>I don't see any need to have new/changed defaults from what already exists. And if it really requires that kind of a change, then forget about it.
>
>The link "target" was the "message" frame when using the "map" button.

Seems that something is amiss (buggy) when something initiated in one instance of IE can end up in some other already extant instance of IE. I thought that the object model guarded against this kind of thing.

And it looks like the Map has a 'target' similarly, yet it comes up in the expected (newer) window.
>
>You can use the "see the entire thread" button to stay in the current window,
>or, as Michel saisd, you can right-click the link and open it in a new window.

Well don't bother changing it then. At the very least it is strange and LOOKS buggy to me, but I have suffered this for a long time now and I can continue.
It was just one of those (few) UT annoyances that I finally decided to ask about.