Good evening to all.

Last year I decided to use Firefoxe and say goodbye to IE6, after disabling everything to do with IE6 I soon realized than I could not get Windows Updates nor could I access MSN Hotmail through MSN 7.5. I went on to search the web and found useless tips and registry fixes that did not worked and eventually gave up and enabled IE6 to correct the problems.

I since upgraded to Firefox 2.04, all ok, MSN 8.1 with the “MSN Plus” extension, all ok there too, but today I found the courage to upgrade to IE7. Now I’m in trouble... When I try to open my hotmails through MSN, It does use Firefox, but does not bring the Hotmail logging page. But the cherry is that when I click on Windows update in the security center, it opens a blank page with IE7 and another page open with Firefox telling me that I should upgrade IE, go to the MS Download Center or better enable Automatic Updates.

I tried all these and others, the only fix so far that works, is to roll back to IE6. I think I should bow in shame and admit defeat before I do any more damage to my OS. I should have known better not to mess with Regedit and Internet settings… I would be really grateful if you could point me in the right direction in order to fix my mess.

Kind Regards

Zatox

Go to the Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, then remove Firefox and Mozilla entries, then reboot, and reinstall Firefox 2.0.0.4

Goos evening Raybay,

And thank you for your reply. I followed your suggestion but it didn't work. I tried to access Windows Updates & Hotmail in MSN but I got an error message saying Application not found, then after reinstalling Firefox the original problem was still there,. I also tried to change my default browser back to IE but it was opening two IE windows, it looked like IE6 & IE7 were both on. My god! What I have done to my OS?

Wow! Veru unusual.
It may work if you remove and reinstall Internet Explorer 7... You can uninstall it in add and remove programs, then use IE6. That works for us.

I cannot imagine what has happened, but I would also ask Microsoft Tech Support via an Internet Query... as they should be very interested in this.

Good morning,

I’ve uninstalled IE7 and everything is working fine. I’ll knock on MS’s door shortly to find out what their verdict is, and I’ll let you know the outcome of my query.
Again thank you for your time and help.

Good morning,

MS solution was to repair windows, that failed too, I've also tried "scannow sfc" and it's hopless too. Looks like a reformat and a fresh start for windows...

Which browser do you have set as the default?

Hi Bobbye;
When I set Firefox as defaut, I get a window for Firefox and a blank one for IE, and when I set IE as default, I get a window for IE7 and again another blank one for the integrated version of IE.
When I uninstall IE7, everything works fine, Checking for Updates in the Security Center and MSN open IE and almost everything else uses Firefox.
I’ve tried to tweak the File Types (URL: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and the one with Privacy) in Folder options, but to no avail.

How strange that you get two browsers launching when only launching one! The only way I can even imagine that happening is if you put 'the other' browser' on one of the tabs in each browser! You haven't done that, have you?

I don't think so, I do not use tab browsing at all, but could you explain how to undo this should it be the case. Thank you in advance.

Both Firefox and IE7 have 'tabs'- this is one of the most appealing features of either. In fact, it is said that Microsoft released IE7 ahead of Vista due to the increasing popularity of tabbed browsing in Firefox. If you are not using this feature, you should check into it.

I've been using FF with the tabbed browsing for almost three years. Currently, I have 7 tabs set up. Each tab is for a site I visit often, making it very easy to access the site by clicking on the tab. I have this set as my home page, so when I launch FF, it open with 7 sites loaded.

During use, I can close an individual tab or add a new one with a different URL from the other 7. Here is a shot of a FF page with 3 tabs:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/tabs

Here is the extension for Tabbed browser Preferences:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/158

Once you use tabbed browsing, you will never want to go back to launching a browser again for every site you want available!

That's an interesting use of Tabbed Browsing.

More typically, when you're on a page full of links, say Techspot.com/vb/,
instead of just clicking on a subject, right-click and Open Link in New Tab.
Now one window has two tabs, one on the subject index, and another on a
specific topic.

The neat part (imo) is you don't need to go-back but just close the detail tab.

Tabs are very flexible. Once you get a handle on them, you can boss them all around!

Thank you for spelling it out, I guess, "Old habits die hard"
I enabled the tab bar for firefox but there is nothing but the current page displayed, as for IE7 (re-installed for the occasion) there is no add-on or any toolbar for tabs.
I'll keep on searching for the fix...

For IE 7: IE -> Tools -> Internet Options -> Menu Bar (check it)
then click on File -> New Tab

For Firefox, go through Tools, also look in File and Edit, or use help.

If you have trouble there, uninstall each, and reboot after each removal. then reinstall.

This could be a new security exploit on a special URL protocol prefix.

What URL(s) cause this to occur? ALL or just a specific one?

One thing for sure. Reports of it happening are very few and far between.

Thank you everyone... I do not know what URLs are causing these probleme, I guess the solution would be to find out how to restore the original (default value /path) URL's.

If you decide to set up the tabs in Firefox:
Tools> Options> Tabbed Browsing> 5 different 'tabs' in this section allow you to set up your tabs the way you like.

It will take some time to get the settings that work best for you, so try different ones out. My Homepage opens with 6 tabs set. These are sites I go to frequently. I can open a new tab with a new URL or I can click on any tab and use it for another web page.