registry key for 'Default Browser'?

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Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:38 am

registry key for 'Default Browser'?

Post by Hanging »

I need to know what registry key Akelpad checks in order to open hyperlinks.

On my system I do not have any "default browser" because for development I need better control over the Windows context menus. Therefore in the registry I configure all my internet file types (HTML, HTM, JS, etc.) manually, myself, with my own file type identifiers. My system works great and allows me to configure context-menu entries and default programs exactly the way I want.

But because I don't have a "default browser", Akelpad won't open hyperlinks when I double-click them (Editor 2 is set to open hyperlinks on double-click). So I need to know what registry key Akelpad checks for "default browser" so I can modify it to point to Firefox (which is the only browser I use).

Please do not tell me to use Firefox | Tools | options | General | Make Default. As I have explained above, that is not an option. I configure all my internet file types in the registry myself. I do not want Firefox larding up the registry with its extra keys, plus it would ruin my careful configuration that has cost me a lot of work. And which, as I already noted, works very well. So I will not tell Firefox to make itself Default Browser.

Once again, what I need to know is the registry key Akelpad is checking for this so I can modify it directly. And if it takes a hex or binary value, I need to know what the value for Firefox is.

Can anyone tell me which key is at issue? Thanks in advance.

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Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:38 am

Post by Hanging »

Never mind, further searching on the web solved my own problem. If anyone's interested, here's the registry code I used (in a *.reg file). This works for the new Firefox Quantum as long as you have not used the Firefox UI to set any file associations and obviously you have not set it as Default Browser. If that's the case, this code will work, though you should check the relevant keys to see what other entries they might have which might interfere. Don't let these keys have any other content than what's displayed here:

Code: Select all

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\http\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Windows\\AltIcons\\FF.ico"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\http\shell\open\command]
@="\"[YOUR PATH TO FF INSTALLATION FOLDER]\Firefox\\firefox.exe\" -osint -url \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\https\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Windows\\AltIcons\\FF.ico"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\https\shell\open\command]
@="\"[YOUR PATH TO FF INSTALLATION FOLDER]" -osint -url \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\gopher\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Windows\\AltIcons\\FF.ico"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\gopher\shell\open\command]
@="\"[YOUR PATH TO FF INSTALLATION FOLDER]" -osint -url \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ftp\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Windows\\AltIcons\\FF.ico"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ftp\shell\open\command]
@="\"[YOUR PATH TO FF INSTALLATION FOLDER]" -osint -url \"%1\""
I derived this code from http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/116315- ... ent=822005 but had to significantly change it; the DDE had to go (it caused error messages).

Note that in HKLM this will apply to all users. You can simply change HKLM to HKCU (HKEY_CURRENT_USERS) and apply to current user only. And always remember that HKCU trumps HKLM, so if you have something different in each branch, the HKCU gets applied.
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