IE7 disappears upon multiple tabs

[n0ctis]

Any time a second tab is created either via link, script or New Tab button,
Internet Explorer 7 and all its process just disappear. There is no crash
message and nothing is logged in the Event Viewer in any of its categories.
Additionally, it does not, upon launch, go to its set home page (I've tried my
own site and about:blank) but rather
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=74005 which provides an "Internet
Explorer cannot display the webpage" error. Popping the URL into Firefox shows a
redirect to http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx which also errors out as a
"cannot connect." Single tab browsing seems to work entirely as it should,
otherwise. While I primarily use Firefox, IE7 is one of my fallbacks and I'd
like to make it work. I've tried completely removing IE and reinstalling a fresh
download of it from the MS website to no avail. Any insights? I couldn't find
anything in the KB. Thanks.

Windows XP Home SP2 (all current updates)
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.13
AMD Sempron 3100+ CPU, 768MiB DDR RAM

.Skot

[n0ctis]

Just for reference, I found an article in the KB that covers the start page part
of the problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945385/en-us

This hasn't solved the sudden closing of IE, though.