98646 - Windows 2000 does not recognize Mozilla as default browser

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 88083

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Moshe Yudkowsky]

After installing both 0.9.3 and Netscape 6.1, Win2K did not recognize Mozilla or
 Netscape 6.1, respectively, as the default browser. Applications such as Eudora
did not "find" Mozilla when a URL was requested.

TO TEST: Install Mozilla 0.9.3 on Windows 2000 PC. Go to Start->Run, and type in
a URL. Even though Mozilla has been installed and set as default browser
according to Installer, Windows 2000 will not be able to find the browser.

FIX: DDE is still set to IExplore, so Windows and other apps are confused. The
Installer must set the Application associated with the File Type of URL:HTTP
(and other protocols that Mozilla should handle, HTTPS, ftp, etc.) to a blank so
it picks up the default action, not IExplore.

Detailed explanation: Windows 2000 uses URL "file types" to connect protocols to
applications. Click on My Computer to open a list of files. Go to Tools -> File
Options; select tab File Types to see a list of all file types and their
matching programs. Click on File Type in the window to sort by file types rather
than extensions. Go to the file type "URL:Hyper Text Transfer Protocol". Click
on Advanced to bring up the associated actions. Click on the action ("open")
then the Edit button. You will see that DDE is checked, and that the application
associated with HTTP is still IExplore. Set IExplore to blank, click OK
everywhere, and after a few moments Windows (and other applications) will start
recognizing Mozilla as the default.

Forgive my longwindedness... but I'm too ignorant of Windows to give a short
explanation.

Comment 1

[Moshe Yudkowsky]

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This problem happens even after installation. If I make
IE my default browser again, and then attempt to have Mozilla make itself the
default browser, Mozilla is still not recognized as the default browser. This
agrues that the problem is not installation specific, but is a bug in the module
that makes associations.

Comment 2

[Sean Su]

Bill Law is working on the problem with mozilla and DDE.  reassigning this bug 
to him.

Comment 3

[Ashley Bischoff (blog at handcoding.com)]

Setting to NEW, but this may be a dupe. Reporter: Do you still see this problem
with a more recent build?
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest/mozilla-win32-installer-sea.exe

Comment 4

[Moshe Yudkowsky]

The bug is still in the nightly build.

TEST: I installed the nightly build on Monday morning 2001-09-10. I then started
IE and had IE reset itself as the default browser. I went to Mozilla and had
Mozilla set itself as the default browser. I found the same problem as before:
Win2K is confused about the default browser. E.g., Start-Run, given
"http://www.yahoo.com", will start up a web page using Mozilla, but Win2K will
pop up an error box anyway.  Examining file types, I see that under the DDE
entry boxes the "application" was not reset to blank and remains "IExplore,"
same problem as before.

Comment 5

[Bill Law]

Yet another report of the same problem.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 88083 ***

Comment 6

[Henrik Gemal]

dupe