"locate link browser" window in Windows 7 and Outlook 2003

K

KSieg

Every time I click on a link in an email in Outlook, a "locate link browser"
window appears. There's a lot of help on the web to fix it for Win XP, but
those steps don't appear to work for Windows 7.

I tried pointing it to iexplorer.exe and the window isn't coming up anymore,
but it just launches IE and my home page... not the link that was in the
email.

Can anyone help?
 
V

VanguardLH

KSieg said:
Every time I click on a link in an email in Outlook, a "locate link browser"
window appears. There's a lot of help on the web to fix it for Win XP, but
those steps don't appear to work for Windows 7.

And because you don't mention those steps or a URL link to them, we cannot
know what you claim to have done so far to prevent us from duplicating what
you already did.
I tried pointing it

And "it" is WHAT?
to iexplorer.exe and the window isn't coming up anymore,
but it just launches IE and my home page... not the link that was in the
email.

From a Google search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=+"internet+explorer"+%2Bfirefox+%2B"locate+link+browser"

Do you have Firefox installed? Read:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...pup-dialog-when-clicking-on-links-in-outlook/
 
V

VanguardLH

KSieg said:
Here are some URL's of what I've tried already:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/821692
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/firefox.htm

And as for what is "it"... when saying I pointed "it" to iexplorer.exe, I'm
referring to the "locate link browser" window which is asking for an exe of a
browser.

Presumably when you copy the URL and paste it in the address bar of IE that
it works to load the target site.

Most of the instructions given about this problem will be for versions of
Windows prior to version 7 (because v7 is new). There may be differences in
the versions of Windows that render the instructions void.

Again, do you have Firefox installed? If so, and after the "locate link
browser" dialog pops up and after you simply close it, does Firefox then
load okay? Do you have Firefox already loaded at the time you click on the
link in an e-mail? My reading says this error only appears if Firefox is
designated as the default web browser and if Firefox is not loaded at the
time you click the link in the e-mail. Did you install and later uninstall
Firefox?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/821692
I don't think this KB article is complete. It mentions specifying the IE
program (iexplore.exe) but it has you browse to the file to select it. That
will include the full path to the file (along with inserting double-quotes
due to the inclusion of space characters in the path). You don't just enter
iexplore.exe.

That article does not mention DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) which allows
Windows application to share data. When you edited the advanced properties
of the URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol as per this article, the following
values should be defined:

- Action name is set to:
open
- Application is name of the program but includes its *full* path; i.e.:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome
and that includes the double quote characters.
- "Use DDE" option is enabled.
- "DDE Message" set to the following value:
"%1",,-1,0,,,,
- "Application" set to:
IExplore
- "Topic" set to:
WWW_OpenURL

The URL for the link is getting past using the %1 shell variable; otherwise,
the command (iexplore.exe) wouldn't know what to open when it loaded. I
don't know what the 3rd and 4th DDE parameters are for.

The Google search of:

http://www.google.com/search?q=+"internet+explorer"++firefox++"locate+link+browser"

found the following article first in its results list:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...pup-dialog-when-clicking-on-links-in-outlook/

This describes how to fix the linking if you are using Firefox as the
default web browser. It mentions additional instructions for Windows Vista
(and Windows 7 would probably have the same required changes). Although you
mentioned trying to point the "locate link browser" dialog to the IE program
(iexplore.exe), you didn't say if Firefox was installed.

So which web browser do you want to open when you click on a link in an
e-mail? The slipstick article and the one from howtogeek are to get Firefox
setup as the web browser to open for the links. Those have you UNSET the
"Use DDE" option for the URL association. The "More Information" in the
Microsoft KB article says, "The Locate Link Browser dialog box appears when
a Microsoft Internet browser returns an error value after it is started by
Outlook 2003. Netscape 6.2 returns an error value when it is started from an
embedded Web link in an e-mail message." Obviously is Firefox is no longer
installed then it cannot handle the link, and the setup for Firefox is not
appropriate when using IE as the link browser.

If you want IE to get used when you click on a link in an e-mail, you'll
need to *enable* the "Use DDE" option and set the values that I noted above
in the URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol filetype definition. If these
instructions don't work under Windows 7, you may have to go visit the
Windows 7 forum and ask them. The Microsoft community for Windows 7 is found
at:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w7itpro
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top