APEX

I have a requirement to have a link from my main application apex page to invoke a client windows os command 'iexplore.exe -noframemerging' (I think this ie option used to be -nomerge). The idea is, this will fire up a separate IE8 session in a separate browser session, thus partitioning it from any other IE sessions. I know in IE8 there is a 'New Session' menu option but we need a link that is more obvious/integrated within our application. Our idea is to "persuade" users to click this link in preference to 'New Tab' or 'New Window' option.

Now, my quandary is how to do this. Should I be calling a Java Applet from the page (via Javascript) but is this "sand boxed" and thus will not let me call an executable for security reasons ?
Obviously I would also like to cater for users running Firefox (which I presume could detect in javascript and pass the browser type into the applet).

Is this sane, Is there any other way ?

Any advice would be appreciated or has someone already been down this road and could give me some pointers or an example.

Thanks in anticipation.