271807 - Delay Opening Links From External Applications

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Dale Feinstein]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

When I click on a link from an email message in Outlook Express, it opens in
Firefox as intended. However, many times Firefox delays in opening the link.

Here is what often happens:

1. I click a link in an Outlook Express email message.
2. Firefox is immediately given focus, as intended.
3. For a second or two, there is no indication from Firefox that it is loading
the link.
            a. There is no new message in the status bar. The status bar
indicates "Done" from the previous Web page that was loaded.
            b. The throbber is NOT animated.
4. After a second or two, throbber animates and "Looking up..." and then
"Transferring data..." messages in the status bar appear and the Web site begins
to properly load.

However, this problem does not occur all of the time. Sometimes, after clicking
a link in Outlook Express, Firefox is immediately given focus and the link
immediately begins to load (or I see a "Looking up..." message in the status bar).

In other words, at times there seems to be a delay before Firefox even begins to
access DNS to even resolve the URL.

In addition, it should be noted that this problem does NOT appear when clicking
links directly in Firefox, entering a URL directly in Firefox's Address Bar, or
when loading Web sites from the Bookmarks. This delay before even resolving DNS
only occurs when clicking links from Outlook Express, even though Firefox is
immediately given focus.

The system that is experiencing this problem is:
Windows XP Home Edition
Pentium III 600 MHz
384 MB RAM
Comcast cable modem Internet connection

BTW, I have not experienced this problem in Mozilla 1.7.3 (the Suite). When I
used Mozilla 1.7.3 as my primary browser before the release of Firefox 1.0,
clicking a link in Outlook Express would cause Mozilla 1.7.3 to immediately
begin resolving the URL.

Through the Mozillazine forum -
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=171232 , it was suggested that I
"Go to Folder Options > File Types > [None] URL Hypertext transfer protocol >
Advanced > Open > Edit > and browse to firefox.exe > Uncheck "Use DDE" > OK.
The same for [None] HTTPS URL Hypertext transfer protocol (or HTTP with privacy)."

I did as suggested, unchecking "Use DDE." However, once I click on OK (twice)
and then reaccess this setting (to be sure the change took effect), "Use DDE" is
checked again. In other words, "Use DDE" does not stay unchecked!

As a test, I deleted under "DDE Message" the following entry: "%1",,0,0,,,,.
Once I deleted this entry under "DDE Message," Firefox immediately loaded URLs
clicked on in Outlook Express as it is supposed to do. I thought the problem was
then fixed.

However, once I exited Firefox and then restarted it, "%1",,0,0,,,, under "DDE
Message" was again inserted. No matter how many times I delete "%1",,0,0,,,,, it
seems that Firefox keeps putting it back. Once this is back, Firefox again
becomes slow to load URLs clicked on in Outlook Express.

As a test, in Firefox I accessed the Tools menu and then chose Options. Under
"Default Browser," I unchecked "Firefox should check to see if it is the default
browser when starting." However, this setting had no effect on "%1",,0,0,,,,
being placed back under "DDE Message."

It seems that the use of DDE is causing links clicked in Outlook Express to be
slow to load in Firefox.

Others have also been experiencing this problem -
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=160730&highlight=dde . The manual
solution to this problem, suggested by "dandersahn" on the Mozillazine forum on
November 18, 2004, is as follows -
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=160730&highlight=dde :

"If anyone cares, I figured out a solution. I discovered that when the "use DDE"
setting is enabled for the "URL:Hyptertext Transfer Protocol", there is a
significant delay between the time that Firefox is activated and when the new
tab/window is displayed and the page begins to render after a link is launched
from an external application. By unchecking "use DDE" for the file type, the
delay is completely eliminated. Unfortunately, even if Firefox is set not to
check to see if it is the default browser, it automatically turns this DDE
setting on for the file type each time the browser is started (why??). To fix
the issue, I created an action called "open (no DDE)" with action
"c:\blah\blah\firefox.exe -url "%1"". I set this to the default action for the
file type and turned off the setting in Firefox to check to make sure it is the
default browser. It works just fine now.

"The question I have is, why is the DDE thing slowing things down so much??
Through all the previous versions before 1.0, I had never had this issue before.
Setting "advanced.system.supportDDEExec" seems to have absolutely no effect on
this whatsoever."


After applying dandersahn's solution, except for allowing Firefox to check to
see that it is the default Web browser at startup, links clicked in Outlook
Express begin to load in Firefox without delay.



Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:



Expected Results:  
Firefox should begin to load links clicked in external applications, such as
Outlook Express, immediately by default without having to manually edit File
Type settings in Windows XP.

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:
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Comment 2

[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.