Fix: "General Failure" while launching FireFox URLs from Outlook
There seems to be an ongoing chaotic series of bugs, or bug, around "Set as Default Browser" and FireFox. Recently I updated my FireFox to 2.0.0.3 and suddenly whenever I click on a URL in Outlook I get a message box with "General Failure." Occasionally I'll get a "Locate Link Browser" message as well.
The issue seems to be some of the old Windows DDE stuff where a DDE message is sent to an application after it started up to pass information - in this case, the URL. Today, we prefer to pass the URL on the command line. It also makes for a faster launch.
Even though this was a problem with FireFox 0.9, it's still happening today. (I'm not the only one). John Haller has a fix in the form of a Registry File.
You can also make the change yourself in the Explorer UI via Tools|Options|FileTypes. Go to the ones marked (NONE) and start with URL:HyperText...and go to Advanced, then Edit the Open action and clear out the DDE Message TextBox.
Unrelated Aside: John's even got a theme and tools and hacks to make FireFox 2 look like IE. Stunning.
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Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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sirshannon
Three years ago, same problem! Will it ever go away? I wondered why that old pages started picking up a bunch of new comments.
I made this change... and while it works as advertised, it's worth noting that when opening those URLS in Firefox (using Outlook or FeedDemon is the common use case for me), the application changes focus. That is, if I click the URL in an Outlook message then Firefox opens a new tab -- but the Outlook message window changes focus.
Put the DDE Message back in and this no longer happens (but you have to deal with the lame failure messagebox).
Hopefully some future updates will resolve things so that focus doesn't change AND we don't have the error message...
"You can also make the change yourself in the Explorer UI via Tools|Options|FileTypes. Go to the ones marked (NONE) and start with URL:HyperText...and go to Advanced, then Edit the Open action and clear out the DDE Message TextBox."
Answer: In Vista, Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program. File Types are no longer listed in Folder Options applet.
http://www.figarocastle.org/blog/archives/2007/06/firefox_vista_o.html
This fixed the issue for me, hopefully it will for any of you on Vista.
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