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Why would Firefox & IE both open to same site w/ one click


onDvine

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My husband just showed me this phenomenon a few minutes ago. Based on when he says it began, it might be related to something that changed last Patch Tuesday. B) Firefox is his default browser, however when he clicks embedded hyperlinks in Excel spreadsheets, Firefox AND IE both open up simultaneously as if both are his default browser.Hyperlinks in email messages (in OE) open just Firefox, so it's not a system-wide issue.Does anyone have any idea of what might be causing this and how to return Excel to opening one browser (the default, Firefox) at a time? :)Edit: added missing word, "be."

Edited by onDvine
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... try the 'Detect and Repair' choice in Excel's Help menu drop-down.
Thank you! :)I never use Excel, so I'll check with him by phone and confirm there's no reason to wait until he gets home before doing that.
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Well, Detect and Repair became Microsoft Office Diagnostics in the 2007 Vista version. It found nothing to repair, so I looked around a bit more.Perhaps if I could un-check the boxes below, that would fix it, but I can't. Shouldn't I be able to?On the page for Firefox's associations, P (husband) has all boxes checked. Doesn't that means three are in conflict because they're checked in associations for both browsers? He doesn't use IE7 at all but it appears they're trying to force it, at least to my uneducated eye. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r197/dR...tionsLocked.gifI did uncheck the boxes in the graphic below but know only the top one could matter for this situation. It didn't seem to help, even after rebooting.http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r197/dR...essSettings.gifAt this point, if I click on a desktop shortcut/link (for Yahoo, as in the example below), IE does try to open it, too, but can't and displays this error message under the Firefox window which opens. Both browsers still open completely for the Excel hyperlinks:http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r197/dR...as/IETrying.gifMight they have changed something with the latest patches to complicate use of anything other than their own browser for their applications? B)EDIT:The overly large image has been changed to text link to be compliant with the Forum Rules. Please either make the image 480 in width or less, or use the thumbnail procedure shown here: here. Please feel free to remove this edit when you decide which way you wish to go. Thanks -- Bambi

Images in Posts8. Scot’s Newsletter Forums does not permit uploading of images with posted messages. The best way to show other members something is to link to it. To do that, paste a Web URL (or hyperlink) into your message. No encoding is required. By handling images in this way, you let people choose whether to click or not.It is also possible to display a screen shot hosted on another server by using the forum software's image tag and placing a URL in it. It should be done only when showing a picture is necessary to getting your important point across. Be considerate of people who have slower Internet connections. An image displayed within a message on Scot’s Newsletter Forums should be no wider than 480 pixels. And if you can make the image smaller, please do.Either one of these approaches requires your image to be hosted on another Web server. If you do not have access to another Web server but would like to link to or display an image in a post, please contact a forum moderator for help. While we can't promise to make this possible in all cases, we are working on ways to make it easier.
Edited by LilBambi
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I think you're going to need replies from the FF and Vista users here. I only posted my suggestion because you gave no details on what OS and version of browser and Office you were using.Sorry.

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... you gave no details on what OS and version of browser and Office you were using. ...
I did, but it was in the second, optional line for more details than are in the subject, and not in the body of the post. It doesn't show, at all, in the composing window's title. I apologize for not putting it somewhere easier to spot.
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Hello,If you start Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and select Tools -> Internet Options to view the Internet Options window and click on the Programs tab, is Internet Explorer selected as the default web browser?Both .MHT and .MHTML files are "compressed" HTML documents saved by Internet Explorer. Basically, they take a web page and save it into one document file, images and all. The .URL files are the files used by Internet Explorer to store Favorites ("bookmarks"). They have a structure similar to .INI text files. These document formats are, as far as I know, specific to Internet Explorer so that is why you cannot change their associations.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

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... If you start Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and select Tools -> Internet Options to view the Internet Options window and click on the Programs tab, is Internet Explorer selected as the default web browser? ...
Thank you. B) Will double-check shortly to be certain it's not. If it was, Firefox should be asking whether I want it to be the default browser every time a window opens, which it is not. However, since Vista is the O/S and the two browsers shouldn't be opening simultaneously in response to a single mouse click, anything is possible. Will post back after I've looked.
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... is Internet Explorer selected as the default web browser? ...
No, it is not.At this point, if Firefox has been opened and is minimized, all shortcuts and hyperlinks open in it by default as they should. However, if Firefox is not already open and you click on a desktop link or a hyperlink anyplace, IE7 opens first with Firefox opening immediately after.:mellow:As an interim measure until this is resolved, he's opening Firefox before clicking any link.
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Hello,I am not sure if this will help, but try starting Mozilla Firefox as an administrator by right-clicking on the shortcut for it and selecting Run as administrator from popup context menu and once it is running, select Tools -> Options from the main menu, select (check) the "Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup" option, applying the change, and then exiting the browser.The next time a hyperlink is clicked on, does Mozilla Firefox start as expected?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

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Hi, Aryeh. ;)

... select (check) the "Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup" option, applying the change, and then exiting the browser.The next time a hyperlink is clicked on, does Mozilla Firefox start as expected?...
The "Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup" option was already check marked, however I did have Firefox check to see if it was currently the default browser, anyhow, and it is.I exited, waited about 30 seconds, and clicked on a desk top link to Yahoo. The result was unchanged: Firefox started fine, however the Internet Explorer error message (see the third screen snapshot in the post above) opened first. When I clicked on a hyperlink, both browsers successfully opened windows to the site, with IE7 first and Firefox on top of it a fraction of a second after.I tried a Google search last night, but either I didn't choose the right words to search for or Google hasn't yet cached comments by anyone else experiencing the same issue.
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... sounds like vista allows (as did xp) one to choose a default browser, but in reality, the code is conveniently broke so that you can't choose a default other than ie. so, ie opens regardless of another browser preference. ...
Thank you, Temmu. :) The theory is believable except that from the time the computer was first set up until recently (it might've changed last Patch Tuesday, but my husband didn't tell me about it until it had been happening for an unspecified amount of time greater than a week ;) ), Firefox always opened appropriately, w/o IE opening, too. ;)
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Progress report in case it can help someone else in the future:This is exactly what the Vista box is doing with links. It provides a fix for WinXP, but talks about editing the registry directly to fix it in Vista. It doesn't mention the behavior with both browsers opening successfully when hyperlinks are clicked.This thread about the hyperlinks discussed a very similar situation in WinXP extensively, but resolution was a switch in default browsers to Safari for Windows, with the problem still happening if Firefox is set as the default. The moderator put it in the forum's Mozilla section early on.Managed to find a few other posts about it with minor variations, mostly happening in WinXP. None of the threads led to the problem being resolved. May try a clean Firefox installation tomorrow, as it's looking like a Firefox issue. I feel better knowing that much.Edit: So many issues turn out to have entirely different causes than they seemed to at first!

Edited by onDvine
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  • 1 month later...
Guest LilBambi

If you haven't tried it yet, open Firefox, uncheck the always check to see if it's default.Then close Firefox and then open Internet Explorer and make it default browser.Close both browsers.Open Internet Explorer and try to open the Excel link. Should only open with Internet Explorer.Close Internet Explorer after uncheck the box that says it should check if it's default.Open Firefox. Manually click the check if Firefox is the default browser. And then when asked if you want to make it default, say yes.Close Firefox then open it again. Check your Excel link.See if that works.If it doesn't fix it, back up your Firefox bookmarks, then uninstall Firefox, and delete the Firefox profile so it will create a new user profile.Make Internet Explorer default.Then reinstall Firefox and make it default, import your bookmarks.Try the Excel link again.Hopefully one of these two ways will work.Otherwise, try the registry changes mentioned at MozillaZine.

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Thank you, LilBambi.I don't remember, anymore, if I did that clean install I planned or not. It's my husband's computer rather than mine; he isn't saying he's unhappy with how it's working so I'm not worrying about it for now. shiny.gif

Edited by onDvine
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