375094 - dde not working on some systems and causes unable to open error message

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Stefan Bertels]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3

every time Firefox 2.x gets installed or updated it creates the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec
(same for HTTPS and FTP)
I don't really know what is the advantage of DDE here but it cases strange behaviour and error messages here!
I use PC-Pine as email software and click on links there (Firefox is my default browser). I always get delays and error messages when launching an URL (especially if firefox is not loaded yet).
For now I just kill these registry keys after every Firefox bugfix update and everything is working fine thereafter! 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
WinXP SP2, PC-Pine mailer (4.64), Firefox 2.0.0.3, PC-Pine set as default mail application (both for current user and machine)

Click on a link in an email.

Firefox is setup so that those external "launched" links will open in a new tab (I use one firefox windows with multiple tabs, always.)
Actual Results:  
MessageBox which says the browser could not be launched etc. But actually it seems to work (but slower).

Expected Results:  
No messagebox.

kill ddeexec keys and all is fine (for me).

I had a short look into these entries:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=192286
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=193189
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=199476
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=245747

They may be related.

Comment 1

[Stefan Bertels]

Attachment: Patch registry file

Comment 2

[Stefan Bertels]

Just updated to 2.0.0.7 -- everytime I have to remove those entries.

Comment 3

[Stefan Bertels]

Issue still there (in 2.0.0.11)

Comment 4

[Stefan Bertels]

Issue still there (in 2.0.0.12) -- very annoying.

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported on Firefox 2.x or older, which is no longer supported and will not be receiving any more updates. I strongly suggest that you update to Firefox 3.6.3 or later, update your plugins (flash, adobe, etc.), and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
http://www.mozilla.com
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+mode

Comment 6

[Stefan Bertels]

Currently cannot reproduce it with latest Firefox. The key is still there, but I changed the machine and improved overall performance. Maybe browser startup is now fast enought to avoid DDE timeout.