444412 - Vista : Firefox does not become default browser if user is not admin

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 404541

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Mike Chambers]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1a1pre) Gecko/2008070903 Minefield/3.1a1pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1a1pre) Gecko/2008070903 Minefield/3.1a1pre

When running vista as a non-Admin user (with UAC enabled), Firefox cannot become the default browser.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Install Firefox. Note that at the end of the install process, it says that it will be the default browser.

Open a command line, and type:

start http://www.mozilla.org

Result:

Internet Explorer is launched

Open Firefox

User is prompted whether they want to make Firefox the default browser. 

Select yes (and select to prompt in future).

Close Firefox

Open a command line, and type:

start http://www.mozilla.org

Result:

Internet Explorer is launched

Open Firefox again.

You are again prompted to make Firefox the default browser.
Actual Results:  
Firefox is not default browser, and it is not opened when launching URLs from commandline.

Expected Results:  
Firefox is default browser, and handles all system URL requests.

This was tested in both the nightly build referenced in the bug report, as well as Firefox 3 release.

Comment 1

[Mike Chambers]

Note that following the directions at:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Setting_Your_Default_Browser#Setting_default_browser_manually

shows that Firefox is not being registered as the default file handlers for URLs:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Setting_Your_Default_Browser#Setting_default_browser_manually

Comment 2

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

I suspect something must be odd with your system... this has worked for me and numerous others on Vista with Firefox 3 and there have been no other bug reports for this as far as I know.

Comment 3

[Mike Chambers]

Finally, when trying to add the protocol as specified in the KB article above, Firefox is not an option (and there is no way to manually specify it).

On my system only Safari and IE show up.

Comment 4

[Mike Chambers]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I suspect something must be odd with your system... this has worked for me and
> numerous others on Vista with Firefox 3 and there have been no other bug
> reports for this as far as I know.
> 

Well, there have actually been quite a few report of issues with other apps not launching Firefox when launching the browser, and I am trying to track it down.

Also, the fact there is a pretty comprehensize KB article on this, seems to suggest that there is some issue or instances where Firefox cant register as default.

Comment 5

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

The other app's not launching Firefox on Vista is a known separate issue that has been fixed for Firefox 3.

The KB article was originally created a long time ago and this is the first report I know of this specific issue on Vista except for the following which would cause the behavior you are seeing.

Did you receive a UAC prompt while installing? If not, chances are you are running with an account that is not a member of the administrators group and installed as a regular user. Try installing again by running the installer as administrator explicitly and entering administrator credentials.

Comment 6

[Mike Chambers]

N(In reply to comment #5)

> Did you receive a UAC prompt while installing? If not, chances are you are
> running with an account that is not a member of the administrators group and
> installed as a regular user. Try installing again by running the installer as
> administrator explicitly and entering administrator credentials.
> 

Yes. As indicated in the report, I installed as a regular user. That is what the issue is.

So, non-Admin users cannot set Firefox as the default browser? Is that what you are saying?

Comment 7

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

No, the installation has to be performed as an Administrator on Vista for regular users to be able to set Firefox as their default browser. The default account created by Vista for a user is a member of the administrators group so this has seldom comes up. It will be fixed in a future release of Firefox 3.