IE 8 causes some windows to open behind the current page

Boy, this is a weird one!

We have just upgraded a few of our machines to Internet Explorer 8 (from 7) and our intranet site - whihc works perfectly on 7 - has developed a few "oddities."

When the user clicks a link that opens a document, the document appears in the foregound - that is, in front of the page where the user clicked the link.  This is a good thing.

However, when the user clicks a link that opens Window Explorer to display a directory's contents, it opens behind the page where the user clicked the link.  If the browser is full screen, the only clue the user has that the link opened is the task bar.  As you can imagine, how many times do users actually look at the task bar?  Instead, they assume the link is broken and call for support.

In IE7, both types of links opened in the foreground, and that is what we want to continue happening.  And no, changing to a different browser isn't the answer.  We are stuck with IE8.

The links are coded like this:

<a href=\\System Directory\Folder\Folder\" target="_blank">See the Folder</a>

<a href=\\System Directory\Folder\Folder\Document.pdf" target="_blank">See the Document</a>

Our operating system is XP Professional.  We have not installed any add-ons for IE8.  We haven't been able to determine if the problem is IE8, Win XP, or out ColdFusion code.

Please help!