Firefox is (and isn't) my default browser
Firefox is designated as my default browser. When I go to Options/Advanced/System Defaults in Firefox, the "Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup" box is checked. When I click the "Check Now" button, it confirms that "Firefox is already set as your default browser." Yet, if Firefox isn't running, and I click on a Web link in an e-mail message, Firefox launches but warns me that Firefox isn't my default browser! Once I dismiss that warning and keep Firefox running, Firefox correctly responds to clicking on a Web link (it doesn't throw up the warning about not being my default browser).
Possibly connected (Who knows?): When I click on a link on a Web page to download a file (maybe the latest version of Firefox), the Save dialog that appears almost always displays the file name without the extension. For example, I just tried downloading the Firefox installer. Instead of displaying the name as Firefox Setup 13.0.1.exe, it displayed Firefox Setup 13.0.1. The file type is listed as "binary file". Every once in a while (maybe one in ten tries), if I quit and relaunch Firefox, immediately return to the download page, and click the file link again, the file name and file type will appear correctly. Almost always, I have to resort to using some other browser to download the file.
I've tried deleting the browser cache; resetting Firefox from the about:support page; installing a new copy by downloading the installer file from the Mozilla site. None of this has helped.
Any ideas? Any fix for this?
Chosen solution
You can try to redo the default browser and temporarily set another browser as the default browser.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/How+to+make+Firefox+the+default+browser
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Setting+Firefox+as+the+default+browser+does+not+work
All Replies (5)
Chosen Solution
You can try to redo the default browser and temporarily set another browser as the default browser.
I'd already tried those fixes without success (but thanks for the suggestions). I tried once again to change my default browser, and discovered something strange, as follows:
- I launched Internet Explorer 9, and set it to be my default browser.
- I quit IE9, then clicked on a hyperlink in an e-mail message in Outlook.
- IE9 launched, but it asked me if I wanted to make IE my default browser (in spite of the fact it was IE9 that had responded to my clicking the link).
It certainly seems as if there's some system-wide (Registry?) setting that isn't correctly keeping track of which browser is set as the default. The correct browser (the one I've set as default) launches, but I still get asked if I want to make that browser the default.
After I'd finished this experiment, I once again set Firefox as my default browser, and I still get the "Do you want to set Firefox as the default" box when I launch it via a hyperlink.
And I still have the second, possibly independent, problem where file downloads are failing.
Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.
--Larry
Modified by larryc43230
Which security software do you have?
Is it possible that it is protecting registry keys or files against changes?
I use Webroot SecureAnywhere Essentials as my security software. I burrowed rather thoroughly through all the settings, and haven't been able to find anything that prevents my changing what browser to use as the default. Also, I change Registry settings rather often, both using Regedit and by installing and uninstalling software, and Webroot doesn't get in the way.
--Larry
Before you ask (I can see the question coming :-)), I've never messed with any Registry settings that deal in any way with browsers or file associations or anything of that sort.
--Larry