I’ve scoured the Internet for help with this, but nothing works.
I’ve noticed that a few – and only a few – embedded hyperlink-related buttons, clicks, links, and menu items no longer work as they once did. In fact, now they do nothing at all.
For example, I use a startup manager called “WinPatrol” that offers hyperlinks for additional info on startup files. When I click them now, nothing happens. I also have context menus in IE that now do nothing at all, while others work just as always.
The WinPatrol site suggests that the problem relates to a problem with the “default browser” settings, which is certainly possible considering that I switched temporarily from IE to Netscape and back again. However, I’ve tried many things to try fix this problem, including:
(1): Answering “Yes” when IE asked me if it wanted to have it be the default browser again.
(2): Making sure the Internet Control Panel is set right
(3): Employing a freeware little tool called “SetBrowser” that is supposed to set the default browser correctly. It doesn’t work. It has an embedded test link button which does absolutely nothing even after allegedly “fixing” the problem.
(4): Examined and ensured the correctness of the registry settings for those keys/values that Microsoft’s site lists explicitly as being those which set the default browser.
Regarding (3), the latest version of it is ancient (1999), so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t work with today’s browsers. To illustrate how hopelessly obsolete it is, it demands that if you’re using Netscape the executable filename MUST be “netscape.exe”, which hasn’t been the case for years. Even so, thousands of web sites swear by it!
So, here are my questions:
(A): Does anyone know of a tool or a complete set of registry keys/values for properly setting the default browser beyond what I’ve done already?
(B): Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here assuming it does not relate to the “default browser” settings?
Help, please!