495988 - "There was a problem sending the command to the program" error message when opening a url

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Jim Clouse]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; MS-RTC LM 8; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.0.0)
Build Identifier: 

Install Win7 7100
Install Firefox browser from their website
While installing choose the option "set Firefox as default browser"
DON"T LAUNCH THE BROWSER (uncheck the option "to launch the browser" afetr install finishes")
Now press "Windows+R" and type any url say "www.google.com"

Expected Result - google.com should launch in Firefox
Actual Result - An error message appears saying " There was a problem sending the command to the program"


++++ This happens only for the first time+++

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install win7 7100
2. Install firefox browser from their website
3.While installing choose the option "set firefox as default browser"
4.DON"T LAUNCH THE BROWSER (uncheck the option "to launch the browser" after install finishes")
5.Now press "Windows+R" and type any url say "www.google.com"



Actual Results:  
An error message appears saying " There was a problem sending the command to the program"



Expected Results:  
- google.com should launch in Firefox

Comment 1

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

This is a real problem for Win7 Jump Lists. Selecting a url from either the recent or frequent lists we populate in the taskbar will result in this error.

I also seem to remember that this isn't win7 specific, I'm pretty sure there's another bug open related to opening urls from start->run someplace that is essentially the same thing.

Comment 2

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Attachment: first error dialog

Comment 3

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Attachment: second error dialog

Comment 4

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

Jim, does removing the ddeexec registry key under FirefoxURL, http, and https fix this for you?

Comment 5

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Jim, does removing the ddeexec registry key under FirefoxURL, http, and https
> fix this for you?

Yep, that appears to have solved the problem!

Comment 6

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

For 3.6 this can be fixed by fixing bug 491947 then.

Comment 7

[Artem Kuroptev]

Stumbled on this behavior just now under Windows 7 x64 with Firefox 10 x86.
Drag-n-drop of html files, "start file.html" from command-line did not worked.

"DON"T LAUNCH THE BROWSER (uncheck the option "to launch the browser" afetr install finishes")" applies.

There is solution spreaded over internets, the solution is to clear registry value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\(default).

However, there is much more appropriate solution. To press "Check now" button under Firefox \ Tool \ Options \ Advanced. Tested under standart W7 administrator's account with UAC enebled to maximum level.

Comment 8

[Noèl Köthe]

running Windows 7 Enterprise with Firefox ESR 24.5.0 in 2014 and still hit by this bug.:(

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_error_opening_Internet_shortcut_or_local_HTML_file_-_Firefox#Registry_edit help me even it is always talking about Vista.

The ddeexec keys were still there and need to be deleted.:(

Comment 9

[Arthur K. (he/him)]

Am able to reproduce this 100% of the time on a 64-bit build of SM 2.36 (https://l10n.mozilla-community.org/~akalla/unofficial/seamonkey/nightly/latest-comm-release-windows64/) on my home and work machines.

Comment 10

[Arthur K. (he/him)]

> There is solution spreaded over internets, the solution is to clear registry
> value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\(default).

Removing NoActiveHandler from HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SeamonkeyURL\shell\open\ddeexec\ seemed to fix it for me.

Comment 11

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

(In reply to Arthur K. from comment #10)
> > There is solution spreaded over internets, the solution is to clear registry
> > value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\(default).
> 
> Removing NoActiveHandler from
> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SeamonkeyURL\shell\open\ddeexec\ seemed to fix it for me.
That is a SeaMonkey bug and specifically controlled by SeaMonkey's installer. So please find the related SeaMonkey or file a new SeaMonkey bug for what you are experiencing.

Comment 12

[David E. Ross]

See <https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/760489>, which seems to indicate the problem results from the installation of one or more browser extensions.

Comment 13

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

I think this was fixed by the removal of DDE so resolving as wfm. If you are still experiencing this please comment in this bug or better yet please file a new bug. Thanks!