IE deleted default email program from list.

[Guest]

Hi.

I've had problems the last couple days with sending emails from the net
(when you click on an email address link). For some reason, outlook express,
which has always been my default mail client, isn't opening the new message
thingie.

Looking at the options in outlook it repeatedly resets itself to 'not the
default client' even after I make it the default. I also looked in the
'default programs' part of the internet options in explorer and found that
while outlook is listed as default for newsgroups (of which I have none), but
isn't listed as the default for email. Added to that, the drop down box
drops down when I click the arrow, but it's empty, not offering me a
selection.

I tried resetting the settings, but it made no change. I've tried
re-installing IE and OE, but it's not made a difference. Does anyone know
what's happened and how I can fix it? I've not added or downloaded anything
strange to trigger it so I'm confused. When I click on an email address in a
web page to send a message to, IE opens about sixty windows that are empty,
and generates about 700 'deleted' shortcuts in my recycle bin. I'm flummoxed.

Any help would be good.
Thanks
--WanderingElf

 

[Jon Kennedy]

It sounds like something has messed up a file association. In My Computer
go to Tools...Folder Options...File Types. Scroll down to the
URL:MailtoProtocol file type. Click to highlight it, click Advanced button,
click on the Open Action, click Edit button. The application used box
should read:
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /mailurl:%1 (quotes intact)
Use DDE should be checked
DDE message - <blank>
Application - msimn
DDE Application not running - <blank"
Topic - System

To reassociate everything, including the registry settings, go to
Start...Run, type in

"c:\program files\outlook express\msimn.exe" /reg (quotes intact)
click Okay.

Reboot and hopefully that will fix things.

If no joy, you might have malware/spyware on your system....

Use Ad-Aware and/or Spybot Search & Destroy to remove it.

Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Good sites on how to install and use Spybot -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/tutorial/index.html
http://tomcoyote.com/SPYBOT/index1.php

Also download a winsock repair tool, to have just in case cleaning up
anything found breaks it -

Winsock repair tools:
LSPFix- all versions of Windows http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.zip
Winsock2 Fix- Win98, ME
http://www.bu.edu/pcsc/internetaccess/winsock2fix.html
LavaSoft- all versions of Windows-
http://digital-solutions.co.uk/lavasoft/whndnfix.zip

More information here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/Darnit.htm
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/ - runs a little script when loading page to
check for common parasites

If no joy, in IE go to Tools...Internet Options...Advanced tab, Browsing
section, uncheck "Enable third-party browser extensions", click Apply, click
Okay, reboot. If that solves your problem, then more troubleshooting is
needed to find out exactly which program, or Browser Helper Object (BHO) is
causing this problem. You don't want to leave it at that, as some BHOs are
useful or necessary - like Adobe Acrobat for reading .pdf files or an
essential component of Norton AV. Get BHODemon -
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm - read all about BHOs.
Disable all items, and then gradually replace one or two at a time to narrow
down the culprit.

Or if you have IE 6 SP-2 you can do this within the browser:
How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;883256

If all the above fails, then the problem could be something new that the
spyware cleaners above don't have in their databases yet. In that case....
HijackThis direct download:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip
Tutorial on how to use HijackThis:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html
Then post it's output log to the forum here for analysis and feedback by the
parasite experts:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/
Or the other HijackThis Logs forums listed here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/forums.html

Or try this program to get some of the most nasty malware:
CWShredder direct download:
http://aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.zip

An alternate resource for all of this and more:
http://www.aumha.org/secure.htm

 

[Guest]

That sounds like it would work, except I don't have a URL:MailtoProtocol file
type. I have URL Internet Shortcut and URLS URL List. I don't know what's
happened to my mailto thing.

I don't have spyware or malware on here - or at least I didn't as of
yesterday, there's no telling now. I already use Ad-Awarw and Spybot to get
rid of it, and I did that before posting in case that was the problem.

Can you tell me what to do now? Looking through the posts, it seems other
people have similar problems, although I haven't found a solution.

Do you have any other ideas?
--WanderingElf

 

[PA Bear]

Always include Previous Message in your replies here, please.

1. http://www.oehelp.com/oedef.aspx; then...

2. http://www.oehelp.com/oelnk.aspx

If still no joy, see:

SendTo and E-mail Links Do Not Work Using Outlook Express as Default
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306098

If you don't have URL:MailTo Protocol, you'll need to create it. See:

Multiple browser windows open when you click on a mailto: link:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/MailtoProtocol.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (Shell, IE/OE) & Security

Mastering Newsgroups in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/newsgroups.mspx

That sounds like it would work, except I don't have a URL:MailtoProtocol
file type. I have URL Internet Shortcut and URLS URL List. I don't know
what's happened to my mailto thing.

I don't have spyware or malware on here - or at least I didn't as of
yesterday, there's no telling now. I already use Ad-Awarw and Spybot to
get rid of it, and I did that before posting in case that was the problem.

Can you tell me what to do now? Looking through the posts, it seems other
people have similar problems, although I haven't found a solution.

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