77846 - All your internet properties should belong to us

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Tracking, enhancement)

Description

[timeless]

Listed in the Programs tab are:
HTML editor [should include Mozilla Composer]
E-mail [Mozilla Messenger]
Newsgroups [Mozilla Collabra]
Internet Call [*i dunno]
Calendar [*i dunno]
Contact list [Mozilla Address Book]

Should not be checked:
[ ] Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default
[ ] Use Internet Explorer for FTP

Oddly this dialog doesn't offer Default Web Browser **,
worse, IE uses 3 different tactics.  (1) Edit key Enumeration. (2) Client 
key Enumeration (3) Top Secret Enumeration.

(2) is probably well documented, but it's also easily watched, so I can offer 
good clear solutions for it
(1) is newer, confusing but at least relatively sane
(3) is well ... we'll whack that bridge sooner or letter. Hopefully microsoft 
will whack it for us, but I'm not that confident.

I'll need some help from people w/ MS IE6 and perhaps MSNExplorer, because i'm 
running w2k ie5.5 so my tactics might not match current strategies.

Comment 1

[timeless]

Attachment: partial regmon log from the pane

Comment 2

[timeless]

Attachment: clients.reg -- sample, odds of this working on your computer: 0

Comment 3

[timeless]

Attachment: mozilla.exe -- sample, odds of this working on your computer: 0

Comment 4

[timeless]

Attachment: netscape.exe -- sample, odds of this working on your computer: 0

Comment 5

[timeless]

sorry, i'm sure choffman doesn't want to be qa. now i just need to find the 
right people.. hrm... installer? or xpapps.

Comment 6

[chris hofmann]

I love being browser QA.  There is no finer job on this planet than being 
browser QA... ;-)

Comment 7

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

adding depends on bug 11057 Simple MAPI
Simple Messenging API is the way that windows (and mac?) application can
communicate with mail clients.

Comment 8

[basic]

What's the status of this bug? On windows, I currently see "MOZILLA" listed as
my HTML Editor

It seems to get it from:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList

and sets the default in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML Editor

For Mail and News 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\News


bug 90071 depend on/dup of this?

Comment 9

[basic]

The default for Mail is set in:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto

The default for News
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\nntp
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\snews

The default for LDAP

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ldap

I think you get the idea...

Comment 10

[benc]

Is this bug describing why Mozilla fails to set up default browser to itself in
Windows 2K?

Comment 11

[basic]

taking QA per timeless's request

Ben C: Err this bug is to make sure that mozilla is associated with the right
stuff on Win32. I'll attach a .reg file with comments as soon as I finish
testing for the right registry entries.

Comment 12

[benc]

This must be a post-NT 4 thing.

The browser selector seems available only if you have IE 5... (Win 98 as well.)

Comment 13

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Bugs targeted at mozilla1.0 without the mozilla1.0 keyword moved to mozilla1.0.1 
(you can query for this string to delete spam or retrieve the list of bugs I've 
moved)

Comment 14

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I spent the weekend researching the Client and internet-protocol registry keys;
my results are at:
  http://members.toast.net/4pf/Protocol.html

The basics are: Mozilla is doing almost everything right for mail, except:
when installing itself as the default client, it needs to set up the
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto key to point at Mozilla; this will allow *other* 
programs that check that key to invoke Mozilla as the mailer.  (Examples of
such programs include Opera and SecureCRT.  They also include Internet
Explorer 6, *if* for some reason the MAPI configuration to Mozilla is broken.)

Currently, most MS apps will invoke Mozilla as the mailer using the MAPI
interface (and this includes IE6).

Mozilla could easily integrate itself into Windows as a known newsreader, as
well.  (As described in comment 9, and requested in bug 121369.)

The Mozilla UI for 'Set as default mail program' is badly designed.  This is
because, by simply unchecking the box, Mozilla is setting the default mail
program to some (random?) program on the Windows Mail Clients list.  Also, the
checkbox implies that Mozilla's default-mailer status is a Mozilla pref, when
in fact it is not.

Rather than a checkbox, it should either display text, "Mozilla is the default
mail program", or a pushbutton, "Make Mozilla the default mail program."

If this were changed, a similar UI for Newsreader should be implemented
separately.

I am not sure if, or how, the mailto, news, snews and nntp protocols should
be handled by the Preferences|Advanced|System page.  I think that dialog needs
some rethinking as well.

Comment 15

[Jonathan Buschmann]

I had a related problem: composing a new mail, typing a character in an address
field (I have automatic address completion via LDAP) immediately a popup occurs
with a long message telling me I have no default mail client, etc.
Went to registry found HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail default set
correcty to Mozilla, but there was another key PreFirstRun set with a value of
the same exact message that appeared in the popup.
Deleted that key and fixed the problem.

Comment 16

[Richard Aspden]

Has anyone looked at implementing this in the installer? Would be good for the
1.5 final release. That, and it would entice more end-users onto the suite, if
Windows didn't keep trying to open Outlook Express etc for newsgroups, when
launched via external programs (e.g. Firebird).

Comment 17

[Vedran Miletic]

retargeting

Comment 18

[Richard Aspden]

I'm going to see if I can come up with a working setup on XP. Much of the work
seems to have already been done, so if I can create the appropriate settings to
allow the proper component setup, I'll put it up here. Any volunteers to test
this on Win9X? I don't have access to a machine that has it on at the moment.

Wish me luck!

Comment 19

[Richard Aspden]

Unfortunately I haven't really had time to do much work on this... as soon as I
get some free time, I'll take another proper look. Sorry :-/

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

obsolete with current installer?

Comment 21

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

As far as Firefox goes this bug isn't applicable.

As far as SeaMonkey goes I don't believe this bug is still applicable but I haven't QA'd all of the different handlers it registers to be able to say for sure.

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #21)
> As far as Firefox goes this bug isn't applicable.
> 
> As far as SeaMonkey goes I don't believe this bug is still applicable but I
> haven't QA'd all of the different handlers it registers to be able to say for
> sure.

It's worth nothing that both blocked bugs are marked FIXED

Comment 23

[BMO Automation]

Marking all tracking bugs which haven't been updated since 2014 as INCOMPLETE.
If this bug is still relevant, please reopen it and move it into a bugzilla component related to the work
being tracked. The Core: Tracking component will no longer be used.