Did you check your security thingies? I think hotmail just changed the login page. I know I had to allow it again in NoScript. I don't know if IE isn't recognizing it. I've gotten big into Firefox so I don't know my way around IE anymore. You might try MaxThon though. It uses the IE engine but it's had tabbed browsing since before XP I think. Lots of user written addons for it too. Fun if you like a community of people around a browser sharing stuff for it.