I seem to have a similar problem as most people around here. I am using IE6 SP1 with windows XP Home on a brand new (only had it for about a month) hp laptop (pavilion zv5000).
When I click on a hyperlink that requires a new window to open there is a brief (split second) refresh of screen as if it's opening the window but doesn't complete the job, then it redirects itself to the original page where the hyperlink is located. Sometimes it does this and nothing appears in the status bar, but sometimes in the status bar it says, "done, but with errors on the page". Additionally, I can't seem to open any page that uses javascript. Both things tend to make IE6 become "not responding". Currently I am using Netscape without having any of these problems, but Netscape isn't compatiple with things that I like using like yahoo companion.
Things I have tried: uninstalling and reinstalling java webstart (from Sun), uninstalling java web start and installing Microsoft VM, uninstalling IE6 and reinstalling it, running windows update as well as hp update and installing all the new updates, running Norton Scan Disk and deleting adware (no other problems found), running Spybot and deleting adware (no other problems found), played around with security settings as suggested, running the list posted by antioed on a similar thread that begins with "Start-->Run-->regsvr32 urlmon.dll", and finally running Hijack This which I haven;t don;t anything with but I did save the log in case it meant anything to anyone (cause I don't undstand it fully).
I also had Stopzilla installed, but I have since uninstalled it, and turned off all popup blockers that run through my browser (google and yahoo). I am not behind a firewall either, however I am connected to the internet through a secure wireless router, but this problem occured when I was connected to an open network as well.
I am getting increasingly frustrated, particularly since this is a new computer. Someone please help!