To work from home I have to use IE6. It will not work with 7 or 8 or Firefox. For school I have to use IE 7 or 8 or Firefox. When I installed Firefox it took over everything and I had to uninstall it so I could work from home. Is there a way to have Firefox only become the default browser for some programs, so I can make everyone happy?
Firefox can be the default browser all it wants, you can still open IE6 and use it for whatever you want to use it for. Firefox being the default browser only means that if you click on a hyperlink to a web page in, say, Word or Outlook, it will open in Firefox.
OK, but the way things seem to work is that I click on my VPN and that opened Firefox and then tried to connect, but could not. When I opened the VPN no browser at all was open. Are you saying that if I opened IE6 first and then the VPN it would probably go through?
Okay, you didn’t say anything about the VPN, that may change things.
Check what the actual command the VPN icon is executing is. Right click on the icon and look around to find where it says what it’s executing. If it’s just calling a web page (look for an extension like .htm, .shtm, .asp, .php, etc.), try copying and pasting that line into an IE6 address box. If that works, you should be able to edit the command line for the icon and just put "iexplore " (no quotes, but do include the space) at the front of it to force it to open in IE.
If the VPN is actually launching a program at your end, then things get more complex from there, but not as drastic as your OP makes it. You don’t have to uninstall Firefox to keep IE6 as your default browser. In Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Advanced > General and uncheck the “check to make sure Firefox is the default” option. Then go to IE and look in Tools > Options > wherever it is and check to make it the default.
Now when you want Firefox, use it, but your VPN should still default to IE6.
Hey Knead,
Thank you very much. That sounds like it should work fine. Except for the VPN and a few other things (like AVG looking for updates) I click on a browswer and then surf. And I do like firefox better. Sounds like my problem is solved.
See if the Firefox Add-on IE Tab works for you. It will use your existing IE engine (which is 6) inside of FF, therefore giving you the ability to have your VPN working inside Firefox instead of in another window. Once you figure out what your VPN icon is connecting to, you can paste that info into the IE Tab settings and tell it to always open that URL in IE Tab, in Firefox.
Or, do what Knead said which is also cool.