InstaAlert and Vista

[craigbrass]

Grrr @ Vista sucking! lol

[EPCal]

I've now gone back to Vista after some hardware upgrades.

I'm using FireFox 2.0.0.6 and IA 3.1.1.9. These were installed to a fresh install of Vista.

Everything else in the entire system works correctly with FireFox, but IA still opens IE. What can I do to make this work? Why not an option to select the location of the browser in IA?

[Jamie Edwards]

Hi EPCal,

InstaAlert used the default browser for the operating system, which is whatever program is assigned to handle http/https etc.

You can check what your default browser is under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command registry key.

[EPCal]

Thanks, but still, how do I fix it? Every other program opens FF, I just need IA to do so as well.

[craigbrass]

Go into the registry and see what is set as the default browser (key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command) and post back.

[EPCal]

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome

[craigbrass]

Then your default browser is Internet Explorer, not FireFox.

[Ryan Lederman]

Try telling FF to take over as the default browser again and see if it overwrites that value.

[Ryan Lederman]

Or, you could manually edit the registry key to point to FF instead of IE.

[craigbrass]

I have been told that changing it to IE then back to FF can work too.

Edit: Just noticed your new title Ryan, "Chief Operating Officer", lookin good!

[wtz]

This is definitely an InstaAlert problem. I have made sure my default browser is set to Firefox. When I go to the "Default Programs" app in Vista it lists http/https as FireFox URL. Every other application opens http/https pages with Firefox except InstaAlert. Doing a little digging (which I'm surprised the devs didn't do after the first couple of reports) it looks like the default browser registry key in Vista changed to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell \Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell \Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice

This is likely because of the new UAC where a normal user won't have Administrator access to change system-wide registry keys.

Hopefully this helps get this annoying bug fixed.

[craigbrass]

Ah yes I see the problem now. The one it is looking for is the global system default when it should be looking for the user default.

Hopefully Ryan will be back on later to comment.

[Ryan Lederman]

Aha! I was unaware that they changed this behavior in Vista. I'll get on a fix asap.

[craigbrass]

MS sure do suck, they should of announced this to developers as many apps rely on this.

[wtz]

Originally Posted by craigbrass

MS sure do suck, they should of announced this to developers as many apps rely on this.

Well, from what I read if your application was written to just do a ShellExecute of the URL it would work properly in Vista with the default browser. However if you read the default browser out of the registry and then use that to run the URL it won't work right. The former is supposed to be the proper way of doing things I guess (according to MSDN at least). However I will disclaim that by saying I don't program for Windows, and I don't claim to know what is best - I'm only regurgitating what I've read. I know Google Desktop and Yahoo IM were both affected by this awhile back so it seems to be pretty common.

Anyways, I'm very glad to hear this will be fixed soon!