Well, it depends, doesn't it? For example, if you open IE with the quicklaunch button like I always do, it'll open to whatever the last window was closed at. But if a link in IE opens a new window, it'll always open to whatever non-maximized size the last window was opened at. Did that make sense?

In other words, a normal link that opens a new window won't open a maximized window, only a "restored" one (I always thought "restore" was a bad term for that function).