Just to confuse you even more, there is another way to do it. The shortcut that you use to open Internet Explorer can be edited. I'll use the one on the quicklaunch bar for an example; right click on it and select "Properties". Where it says "Run:", next to that it will probably say "Normal window". If you change this by clicking the arrow to the right of it, selecting "Maximized", then clicking "Apply" followed by "Ok" - the next time you start up IE it will already be maximized, you only need to edit the shortcut's properties the once! This will usually work for any shortcut that opens up a window, i.e. My Computer, My Documents etc.