Member Avatar for Tony_Gee

Hiya!

Here I am, this time to try and get something different sorted, would that be possible, that is.

My laptop runs under XP Home Edition SP2 and I have Ms Office Teacher & Student 2003 installed.

Now, the funny thing is that I am experiencing some trouble here and cannot figure out how to solve it.

There are links in Outlook 2003 that we can click in order to access different pages on the internet by using the default Internet Browser. My one is Mozilla Firefox, by the way. When I clicked a link from within an email, there would be a window popping up "Locate web browser". Having done a search on the internet, there was this info that said that if we follow the path and go to the Internet Browser Folder (which I did), click on it and then ok and out, the links would be just up and running. No way, what they do now is take me to my Firefox Homepage and that's it. Any ideas of how I can revert this situation and fix it in an appropriate manner, please?:icon_question:

Despite the fuss and annoyance, if there is a link where the web address is showing, at least we can copy it and paste it; but if it happens to be a "click here" type of thing, then the trouble is there, because we don't know how to access the intended page.

What could I possibly do to get rid of this situation and get it fixed, please?

Thanks a lot for your help and assistance.

Tony.:icon_redface: :confused:

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Generated

Short follow-up and practical fixes based on this thread.

As ‘s outcome shows, a temporary default-browser reset can make links work again, but the root cause is usually broken Windows URL-handler associations rather than Outlook itself. ‘s hover-tip is a simple way to reveal a link when the visible text is ambiguous; when that fails, the message HTML or the URL handler is the next place to look.

Quick, non-destructive steps (try in this order):

  • Use the browser’s own “Make default” control or Windows’ "Set Program Access and Defaults" to reapply the default browser.
  • Re-register Windows’ URL handling DLL and restart:
    regsvr32 urlmon.dll
  • Run the browser’s installer and choose Repair or reinstall so it re-registers URL handlers.

If the problem persists, check the HTTP/HTTPS association entries in the registry (backup first). The values under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open\command
must point to the browser executable and include the "%1" placeholder so the clicked URL is passed through. Export any key before changing it, or create a System Restore point.

When link text says “click here” with no visible target: hover to see the status-bar URL, or copy the link (right-click → copy) and paste it into Notepad to inspect the actual href. If the HTML is malformed or uses client-side scripting, viewing the message source will reveal the real URL.

Final notes: avoid editing the registry if unsure; prefer UI fixes and reinstall/repair steps first. If those don’t fix it, repairing Office/Outlook can restore proper hyperlink handling.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

maybe the click here link is just that a link to your browser and not a specific web page.
If you just put you cursor over the link it should show the site address

Member Avatar for Tony_Gee

maybe the click here link is just that a link to your browser and not a specific web page.
If you just put you cursor over the link it should show the site address

Yes, caperjack, I guess it should bout it wouldn't. Thanks for your suggestions anyway.

I managed to sort that out in a very straightforward way, meaning a really basic and simple way. I made briefly my IE7 my default browser, everything started working just fine and then I made Mozilla Firefox my default browser again - I guess it was something like an "attention seeker" to some extent.... everything's back on track now.....Ta. Tony:cool:

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