A clicked link embedded in email (Outlook Express) takes forever to open in Firefox - the file type instruction is as follows: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -requestPending -osint -url "%1". Why is this corrupted?

Question

I believe the above problem started after a recent Windows update to my PC. I found a solution. First I open My Computer, Folder Options and then File types. File types affected: (None) Hypertext Transfer Protocol and (None) Hypertext Transfer Protocol with Privacy. When I change the Advanced Application to be Used by eliminating "requestPending -osint -yrl" from the entry, email links open almost instantly again. The problem is that the change I make is not permanent. Something keeps switching it back to the corrupted form and links don't work properly from my email.

Answer 1

I suspect you may need to modify your Windows registry settings to make the changes permanent. That said, I believe the command line options you wish to remove act as safeguards, I would caution against removing them.
'''-requestPending'''<br>
Tells the application that there will be a Windows DDE request to open the same url specified on the command line.
(Windows DDE is a method for transferring data between applications.)
'''-osint'''<br>
Tells the application that it is being launched by the OS shell.
'''-url URL'''<br>
Open URL in a new tab or window, depend on the browser option.
For more info, see [https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Command_Line_Options here].
You could try removing the -requestPending option (leaving the other options) and uncheck/clear the "Use DDE" checkbox. This may speed things up.
With regards to editing the Windows registry, please see [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516 here]. '''Remember to back up your registry first!'''
I believe you will need to modify the following registry keys:
Software\Classes\http\shell\open\command<br>
Software\Classes\https\shell\open\command<br>
Software\Classes\ftp\shell\open\command<br>
Let us know how you get on.