I found a new way to do this too. I don't know if it will work when you click on links to open a new window, but it will work for your shortcuts and quicklaunch icons. Right click, go to properties. Under the shortcut tab there is a thing that says run. It likely says "normal window". Change this to maximized. Then when you click on that, it will keep your window maximized. Like I said, don't know if it works when opening existing windows, but it likely will IF your current window is maximized. Then again, I don't know.
Spud