260807 - FireFox "forgets" to write some registry values when setting as default browser

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 305040

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Felix Neumann]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3

When setting as default browser, FireFox has to write some values to the
registry, for example in key "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command" it has
to set "(default)" to the app path.

However, some browsers do the following: they don't write their path to the
"open"-key but to another key in the same path. (e.g. AvantBrowser:
"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\AvantBrowser\command") This only works when they
set the default value of "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell" to "AvantBrowser". In
result, windows uses the key "AvantBrowser" instead of "open".

In result, FireFox should set for every document type it changes ("http", "html"
etc.) "KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell" -> "(default)" to "open" to make sure Windows
reads the right key.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Have some special browsers as default browser (e.g. AvantBrowser
http://www.avantbrowser.com)
1. Install FireFox; instruct the setup application to set FireFox as default
browser.
2. Try to open a website out of any application (e.g. click a link in Thunderbird)
Actual Results:  
The old browser opens.

Expected Results:  
Open FireFox.

Comment 1

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 2

[Alex Tanner]

Try the following registry hack: in REGEDIT, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\IEXPLORE.EXE and change the (Default) value so it points to the path of
the Firefox executable. Then remove the "Path" string. What's so cool about this
hack is that when you run the Internet Explorer application (IEXPLORE), and tell
it to set IE as the default browser, it associates all Web file types and
protocols with Firefox (because it looks for the path in the above key)! I don't
know about .cdf files (Channel Definition Files) being supported in Firefox; you
will have to ask Mozilla about those. However, I do know that running 'REGSVR32
CDFVIEW.DLL' will associate .cdf files with IE. Also, AOL ART files will still
be registered to open with IE (if "AOL Art Image Support" was installed into IE).

Comment 3

[Jo Hermans]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 305040 ***