Help opening links from Outlook 2003

July 28, 2005 11:15 AM

I am having a problem with Outlook 2003. If I click on a hyperlink in an email message, a new internet explorer window is created instead of using the currently open internet explorer window. How can I change this?

I just bought a new computer with Windows XP, Outlook 2003 and Internet Explorer 6.0.2. My old computer had WindowsME. I have searched Microsoft KB and Google with no luck. Thanks!

posted by garypratt to computers & internet (8 comments total)

What's the state of the "Reuse Windows for Launching Shortcuts" checkbox under the Internet Options, Advanced tab?
posted by Rhomboid at 11:53 AM on July 28, 2005

Rhomboid, the same behavior occurs whether it's checked or not (after rebooting). This only occurs when clicking on links in Outlook - clicking a link in Internet Explorer reuses the current window.
posted by garypratt at 12:44 PM on July 28, 2005

According to this response in the MS support forums, you can't change this behaviour.

"using a new browser window each time was a customer-requested feature"

Huh.
posted by son of sasquatch at 1:57 PM on July 28, 2005

Right, that setting is supposed to control how links opened in external programs affect IE windows, not what happens when you click a link inside IE itself. (Try shift-clicking on the link and see if that makes a difference, although I know that doesn't answer your question.) But in this case it looks like another case of Microsoft programs having some kind of secret handshake between them rather than using standard system methods.

Unfortunately I make it a habit of avoiding IE and Outlook as much as humanly possible so I'm afraid I'm at a loss here. You could try re-setting IE as the default browser in case something about the http: protocol handler setting has been messed up by another program. But if this is a newish computer then that probably won't do much.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:03 PM on July 28, 2005

Thanks, son of sasquatch...not the answer I was hoping for, but at least I can stop trying to figure out how to change it. IMHO, a stupid decision on MS's part....

Does this mean it would happen with other browsers too? I may finally have a real reason to switch over to Firefox or Opera....
posted by garypratt at 2:07 PM on July 28, 2005

Thanks for the suggestion, Rhomboid - unfortunately the shift-click didn't work....

I have been using IE and Outlook so long that it would be difficult to switch at this point, but this issue may turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
posted by garypratt at 2:13 PM on July 28, 2005

One last thing you could try:

-------------------------------------------
1. Close IE and Outlook 2003,
2. Open "My computer"->"Tools"-> "Folder Options..."
3. Select the "File Types" tab,
4. Scroll to "HTML" click on "Advanced"
5. Select "Open" from the list of actions, then press "Edit..."

In there you will see "WWW_OpenURLNewWindow" in the use DDE section

Change this to "WWW_OpenURL" and outlook will reuse the open browser.
--------------------------------------------

I haven't been able to test this yet, as I'm not at home (work uses Office XP). I found the info at the bottom of this page. It looks like it worked for someone though.

Good luck!
posted by son of sasquatch at 2:24 PM on July 28, 2005

FWIW, there's a readily-accessible Firefox option under Tools> Options> Advanced that tells Firefox what to do when you click on a link in some other application. You can choose to open the link target in a new Firefox window, a new tab in the current window, or the current tab.
posted by flabdablet at 5:01 PM on July 28, 2005