E-mail links willnot open browser

I have WIndows 98 SE with Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5 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 browser window. Originally this was IE 5.5SP2 when I did he security patches. I upgraded Internet Explorer thinking that this was the problem. I can work around by stopping the browser which then populates the URL in the address bar and then click go, but really annyoing. Can anybody help?