Techniques to support user interaction in a browser environment, "capture" certain user actions, and perform appropriate defined actions. In a first scheme, "setup" pages are used to detect user actions. Each setup page is associated with a respective script that is executed when the page is activated (e.g., via a Back or Forward button). The script performs the defined actions to obtain the proper behavior for dependent pages. The scripts for the setup pages keep track of the state of these pages, and further maintain a local history stack for the URLs of the dependent pages. In a second scheme, each dependent page includes a hidden history frame having a script that performs a set of defined actions for the page. The script further keeps track of whether or not the dependent page has been loaded previously.