Opening a new window is an oft debated procedure. Before you decide that you NEED to open a new window I would take a look at the following list of web design don’ts by Jakob Neilsen(a usability expert):
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html

Something like this:


<a href="" onclick="window.open('win.html','window','width=800 height=600')">open in new window</a>

will open the file win.html in a new window that is 800X600. But, if the user has javascript turned off they will not have the ability to navigate to the page.

I recently found some standards based code to do the same thing AND it won’t fail if the user has javascript turned off. Take a look here:
http://www.accessify.com/features/tutorials/the-perfect-popup/