e-mail links will not open to page

I have WIndows 98 SE with Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0 and IE 6.0. I just recently updated WIndows with all the security patches needed. Now when I click on a link in an e-mail, I cannot get it to open the page in the browser window. I upgraded Internet Explorer SP1 on the Mcrosoft web site. I can work around by stopping the browser which then populates the URL in the address bar and then click go, but it is really annyoing. Can anybody help? The defaults are IE and Outlook Express.