Clicking a Hyperlink in Outlook Prompts to Select a Browser, With IE set as default

When you click a hyperlink in Outlook 2007 or 2010 with Internet Explorer set as the default, the Open With window (“How do you want to open this?” dialog) appears with the list of browser choices. This is an issue in Windows 10 with Outlook 2007 or 2010 installed, and Internet Explorer set as the default browser.

Although you click the Always use this app checkbox and click OK, Outlook shows the same prompt the next time you click on a web address or hyperlink in email. The Microsoft article You are prompted to specify Internet Explorer when you click a link in Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2007 works for a vast majority of users, and this post simply condenses that information, providing a registry fix and a command-line option to automate the setting.

Registry Fix

Download outlook-ie-opennew.zip, unzip and run the outlook-ie-opennew.reg. This creates the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\opennew\command

And sets its (default) value data to:

"%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\IExplore.exe" %1

Using Reg.exe Command

Alternately, you can simply open an administrator Command Prompt, and run the following reg.exe command.

Right-click Start, click Command Prompt (Admin). Type in the following command and press ENTER:

reg add "hkcr\htmlfile\shell\opennew\command" /ve /d  "\"%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\IExplore.exe\" "%1"" /f

You should get the message “The operation completed successfully“. That fixes the Outlook hyperlink problem.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

3 thoughts on “Clicking a Hyperlink in Outlook Prompts to Select a Browser, With IE set as default”

  1. Hi, I want to do the exact opposite, I have just upgraded to Outlook 2016 from 2010 on Win10 Pro.
    I used to have this “issue” but found it very useful as I use different browsers for different reasons so I liked to be asked which browser to open a link with. However, I have now lost that ability and want it back, so how can I force Win10 & O2K16 to ask me which browser to use every time ?
    I found this alleged solution but it did not work for me…
    ——————————————-
    Modify the following registry keys:

    •[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice]
    •[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice]

    Change ProgId to be a nonsensical value.
    ——————————-
    I entered 000000 and 1x* but neither had any effect…

    Reply

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