y!m opening links in explorer.exe not iexplorer.exe

October 2, 2006 12:08 PM

My Yahoo Messenger has started trying to open hyperlinks in Explorer(filesystem) instead of Internet Explorer/Firefox and I can't figure out how to flip it back.
posted by zeoslap to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Explorer (filesystem) is essentially the same application as IE these days. For example, if you open Windows Explorer and type 'http://www.yahoo.com' in the address bar, it'll open up Yahoo's homepage, default to IE-style buttons, and about the only difference is that you'll possibly have the Folders tab opened on the left hand side, which you can close by clicking the 'X' in the upper right corner of the tab.

As far as using IE over Firefox, I'm not sure, but Yahoo Messenger probably opens the link in whatever your default browser is (though some IM clients explicitly open links in IE, from my experience).

Anyway, those are my experiences with my particular setup. Your mileage may vary with your setup.
posted by Brak at 3:33 PM on October 2, 2006

Try using Set Program Access and Defaults (under the Start menu) to choose Firefox as your default browser.
posted by flabdablet at 4:43 PM on October 2, 2006

Along the lines of Explorer and IE being the same app: if this is happening because you already have instance of of Explorer open, try going under IE's Options > Advanced and unchecking "Reuse windows for launching shortcuts". Might help.
posted by Famous at 7:19 PM on October 2, 2006