Hyperlink error in email handling 1

[Deniall]

A few days ago, and for no obvious reason, my computer ceased allowing me to click on a hyperlink in an email and have that link automatically opened in my default browser.[ ] Instead I now get a message saying "This operation has been canceled [sic] due to restrictions in effect on this computer.[ ] Please contact your system administrator."[ ] This happens regardless of whether I have Chrome or Edge set as my default browser.

Professor Google offers a lot of widely varying suggestions.[ ] None of the ones I felt brave enough to try made any difference.[ ] I deleted and reinstalled Chrome, I did some minor tinkering in the Registry, etc, but to no avail.

Thinking about what might have initiated this change, I remembered that a few days ago, after reading that Microsoft had officially "cancelled" Internet Explorer, I had removed Explorer from my machine.[ ] Not that I had ever actually used it.[ ] So, on the extremely off-chance that this might have triggered the problem I tried to reinstall Explorer.[ ] I found a place on the Microsoft website from where I could supposedly download it, but (without informing me) that ended up re-installing Edge instead.

My operating system is 64-bit Windows-10, home version.[ ] My mail program is the Microsoft Outlook version that came as part of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.

Has anyone else had this problem?[ ] Can anyone suggest what might have caused it, and (more importantly) what might be the cure?

 

[Mike Lewis]

Deniall,

I'm afraid I won't be able to give you a definitive answer to your question. But I can tell you that re-installing Chrome or Edge would not have made any difference because the problem occurs in your group policies, which you access by going to gpedit.misc on your computer (type that string into the search box).

Also, you didn't need to uninstall IE. It's true that it is now no longer supported, and so will not receive bug fixes or security updates, but it should still work. As you have found, you can no longer download it from Microsoft. But if you still want to use it, you could always run Edge in "IE mode". But, again, I doubt that will solve this particular problem.

One thing you might try is to install a different (free) email client, such as Thunderbird or Postbox, and set it as your default client. Not as a permanent solution, but just to see whether to eliminate Outlook from the equation.

I hope someone here can give you some better information. In the meantime, you can of course continue to send emails by right-clicking the email address in your browser and selecting "Copy email address" (or something similar) and pasting it into the email client. (No doubt you already knew that.)

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[mikrom]

It seems that few days ago something was installed or reinstalled on your computer that causes the problem you have now.
Problems of this type can often be fixed with System Restore. Open System Restore, search for the restore point dated before the day when your problem occured and try to restore your computer to the state it was before the selected restore point.

 

[strongm]

Do hyperlinks work in other applications (e.g. Word)?

 

[Rick998]

@Deniall - Microsoft didn't cancel Internet Explorer, it just removed the ability to open it as a browser and - instead - implemented a redirect across the board to Microsoft Edge, irrespective of whether you have another preferred browser installed.

Internet Explorer's MSHTML engine ('Trident') is still very much in use beneath the scenes but can now only be used for 'IE-mode' in Microsoft Edge or via COM and/or scripting methods.

I've no idea how you 'uninstalled' Internet Explorer... it's uninstallable. The most you can do is remove it as a Windows Feature.

As you are using Windows 10 Home you don't have access to the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) so I suggest that you open a File Explorer window then copy/paste the following into the address bar then press Enter/Return:

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features

Once the dialog opens, select Turn Windows features on or off in the left-hand navigation pane.

When the new dialog opens, remove any tick against Internet Explorer 11, click OK then restart your PC.

When it has restarted, do exactly the same put put the tick back in again against Internet Explorer 11, click OK then restart your PC.

Hopefully that will restore sufficient functionality of IE's Trident browser engine for hyperlinks in Outlook 2010 to work again.

Post back with results.

Hope this helps...

 

[Deniall]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions.

Mike Lewis.[ ] As Rick998 points out, I do not have gpedit, as I discovered when following several of the suggestions my early Googling threw up.[ ] I don't WANT Internet Explorer, I was only trying to put it back in case my deleting it had caused my problem and further "in case" putting it back might undo whatever damage deleting it had (perhaps) caused.[ ] Yes, as a workaround I am using the "Copy hyperlink" to paste URLs directly into my browser, but some emails have the URLs dressed up in some sort of button that makes this impossible.[ ] (For these, I discovered that moving the email into the "Junk e-mail" folder undresses the URLs.)

Mikrom.[ ] I will try a System Restore once I have cleared a few things off my deck.

Strongm.[ ] Yes, hyperlinks seem to work everywhere except emails.

Rick998.[ ] I cannot remember exactly how I deleted Internet Explorer, but it seemed a natural progression of operations (I certainly didn't use File Explorer to find InternetExplorer.EXE and delete the file).[ ] When I did your "Programs and Features" thing Internet Explorer did not appear on the list.

 

[Rick998]

@Deniall - What's your exact Windows 10 version (not edition) and build?

You can't remember how you 'deleted' Internet Explorer?

I've just updated a brand new clean Windows 10 21H2 install (build 1904.1766) with the latest Windows Updates... and Internet Explorer 11 still shows as a Windows Feature with a tick in its checkbox.

As a result, I have no idea how you've done it... but - if Internet Explorer 11 does not appear in Windows Features - I suspect you may well have broken your current install beyond fixing.

Did you use a third-party uninstaller that claims to be able to remove Internet Explorer? (I suspect this is academic... I hope others have suggestions about how to un-bork your OS.)

 

[Deniall]

Rick998.

My exact W10 details are:
Edition = Windows 10 Home
Version = 21H1
Installed on = 18-Sep-20
OS Build = 19043.1766
Experience = "Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4180.0" (whatever that means)

Yes.[ ] I cannot EXACTLY remember how I deleted IE.[ ] I thought I used the "usual" process, but cannot be sure b/c it had been quite a while since I had deleted anything.[ ] But I most certainly did not use any third-party tools to do it.

 

[Rick998]

@Deniall - There is no "usual" process. It just isn't possible to uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 10, only disable it as a 'Feature'.

However, there appears to be more and more reports on the intertubes of similar experiences, particularly with Windows 10 Home users and especially Microsoft Office 2010's Outlook... so it's becoming increasingly more likely that Microsoft has made a booboo. (I know... it's unlikely, right?)

Anyway, I'm ducking out of here whilst the situation appears to be growing and I don't have an answer...

 

[Deniall]

Thanks, all, for the various suggestions.[ ] Every one helped to develop my thinking, and so contributed to me taking the final plunge.

Which was to Restore from an old recovery point.[ ] But even this took some years off my life.[ ] My first attempt started fine.[ ] But it took several hours and when it finished it told me it hadn't finished properly and wanted to undo itself.[ ] This subsequent process ran right through the night without seeming to get anywhere.[ ] So I had to kill it.[ ] Luckily(?) I was still able to boot up after that.[ ] So I booted up in Safe Mode, and attempted to restore from an even earlier Restore Point.[ ] This ran to completion, and in less than an hour.[ ] (Expecting longer, I had gone out for a coffee while it ran, so I don't know how long it actually took.)

My email hyperlinks now work again.[ ] Internet Explorer has reappeared.[ ] Strangely, Chrome browser had disappeared, but was manually reinstalled fine.

And my pulse rate has at last dropped into double-digits.

 

[mikrom]

Hi Deniall,
Nice to hear that you solved your problem.
System Restore has helped me to solve similar problems several times. Usually it doesn't take that long, maybe only if you choose a restore point way back in the past, or maybe if you do too much back and forth installing and uninstalling - which probably was in your case
By system changes, windows usually creates the restore points automatically, but my experience shows that it is safer to do this manually. So before I go experimenting with windows and I'm not sure if everything will go well afterwards, I prefer to create restore point manually. Then, if something goes wrong after that, I can easily restore the original state.