Force IE to use one process per tab

Yes, this was added in at version IE8 and has been available since.

"Tab Process Growth" : Sets the rate at which IE creates New Tab processes.

Open the registry editor and go to the section below and locate the TabProcGrowth key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

If the key does not exist, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value or String Value and name it as TabProcGrowth.

Set the value of the TabProcGrowth key to some high number like 20. This will instruct IE to open the first 20 tabs in a new iexplore.exe process. If you believe that you will be using more than 20 tabs at any given point, set the value higher.

Now restart IE and away you go.

While the documentation does not state that a reboot of the machine is required for the settings to take effect, some users have observed this to be necessary.