Setting the Default Web Browser

In one of my articles article More Internet Explorer 7 Problems Reported, subscriber Valerie Mitchell was having problems with IE7 and one of its setup pages — a page that should only have appeared one time.

She wrote back to say:

I ended up uninstalling IE7 and went back to IE6. But now I keep getting this problem on FireFox and IE6…Everytime I open these browsers or if I click on something in my favorites, I get this message: “This file does not have a program associated with it for perfoming this action. Create an association in Folder Options” It also keeps popping up even as I’m typing this email.
I tried following the instructions to fix this on the MS website, but I just don’t get it. Could you explain it in simpler terms please or your own method of fixing this please. Also, I don’t know how to enable ActiveX. Could you tell me how please?
Many thanx again.
v.mitchell

It sounds like IE7 was your default browser, but that when it uninstalled itself, it didn’t turn IE6 back into the default (perhaps you had Firefox as the default before).

To make IE the default web browser:

1. Start IE6
2. On the menu bar, go to Tools, Internet Options.
3. Click on the Programs tab and
4. Put a checkmark in the box at the bottom that says “Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser.” Click Apply and then OK
5. Close IE6 and then open it again. At that point, IE6 will check to see if it is the default. It will either make itself the default at that time or it will as you if you want it to be the default.

To make Firefox the default web browser:

1. Start Firefox
2. On the menu bar, go to Tools, Options
3. The default tab is Main, which is the one you want. At the bottom, in the section System Defaults, you will find a checkbox labelled “Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup.” Put a checkmark in that checkbox. (Startup, in this case, means the startup of Firefox, not of Windows.)
4. If you want to make Firefox your default right now, click on the adjacent button that says “Check now”
5. Then, click OK

I thought this would be the end of the problem, but Valerie wrote back to say that she didn’t have the “Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup” checkbox.”

At this point, I think she needs a clean install of Firefox.