267553 - Firefox breaks Windows shell handlers for URLs, htm. html files, and Internet shortcuts

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Allister Beharry]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041026 Firefox/1.0RC1
Build Identifier: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/0.10.1/Firefox%20Setup%201.0PR.exe

After installing Firefox 1.0PR on my Windows Server 2003 machine, I chose the
option to use Firefox as my default browser. Immediately all .htm and .html
files, embedded URLs in programs Internet shortcuts caused Firefox to launch,
which is the expected behaviour. However I cannot restore these handler sto what
they were before installing Firefox. If I choose to revert to IE as my default
browser, the handlers are still set to use Firefox. IE never prompts me with the
dialog asking if I want to set it as the default browser. If I uninstall
Firefox, all the handlers are broken. I lose the ability to launch .htm or
Internet shortcuts. The icons for .htm files and Internet shortcuts are
displayed as the "unknown program" icon.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Firefox 1.0PR using the Windows installer.
2. In Firefox Options -> check Firefox as the default browser.
3. Unnstall Firefox, 

Actual Results:  
All .htm,.html files, URL and Internet shortcuts are broken. Clicking on any one
of them brings up a dialog asking you "what program shuold you use to run this
file" 

Expected Results:  
Firefox should aloow handlers for these objects to be changed to other browsers.
When it is uninstalled, these handlers should revert back to what they were
before installing Firefox

This problem appears to be the way Firefox is registering handlers for Windows
shell objects. It is doing it in a manner that other programs cannot change the
handlers. When firefox is uninstalled, other programs cannot take over the
handlers for these objects, possibly because firfox has deleted the original
handlers and created new ones with new CLSIDS. The only way to solve this is to
do a reinstall of IE.

Comment 1

[David]

I've confirmed this, experienced the exact same symptoms with 1.0PR on a 
Windows XP Professional SP1 box.

The fix (if you can call it that) was to go into the registry to HKCR\http and 
HKCR\https and rename those two keys to http- and https- respectively (that way 
you're not deleting those keys and could theoretically rename them back if 
something broke really bad).  This allowed me to pull up http:// and https:// 
shortcuts using IE again from the Start/Run prompt.

After uninstalling Firefox, I can confirm that these keys are left behind, 
here's a registry dump of the affected keys AFTER an uninstall:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https]
@="URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy"
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002
"URL Protocol"=""
"Source Filter"="{E436EBB6-524F-11CE-9F53-0020AF0BA770}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\DefaultIcon]
@="D:\\PROGRA~1\\FIREFOX\\FIREFOX.EXE,1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open\command]
@="D:\\PROGRA~1\\FIREFOX\\FIREFOX.EXE -url \"%1\""

The uninstaller should definitely remove these keys (or set them back as they 
were before the Firefox install).

Comment 2

[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 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.