Cant switch default browser

[ja...@nospam.com]

I'm running Win98se. For many years my default browser was K-Meleon, and
I also had the highest (usable in 98) version of Firefox installed. (FF
version 3.x).

K-Meleon no longer works on almost any website, and the upgrades for it
are only for XP and higher.

I want to switch and make Firefox the default browser. But I cant make
it switch. I went to the Options in FF and clicked on "Make FF the
Default Browser". That does nothing, and I have tried to do it at least
10 times.

I even made a backup of K-Meleon and deleted it. Then went to FF and
clicked on "make FF the default". Still nothing. All it did then, was to
keep annoying me by saying it cant find K-Meleon.exe.

I even went so far as to modify my registry to remove all references to
K-Meleon. Then went to FF and once again, clicked on "Make FF the
default".

Still no change.....

I since restored the registry and put back K-Meleon from the backup.

How the heck can I make FF my default browser?

After that, I'll remove K-Meleon permanently.

[JT]

James,


You should have the followin 2 registry settings... 1 for HTTP and 1
for HTTPS.

If not, create them.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssoc
iations\http\UserChoice\Progid
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssoc
iations\http\UserChoice\Progid


Progid is a String Value.

You have 3 choices.

They are:

FirefoxURL Firefox
ChromeHTML Chrome
IE.HTTP Internet Explorer

To make Firefox your Default edit the Progid and change it to
FirefoxURL.

If you are familiar with merging .reg files save the following to a
file named default.reg on your desktop.



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAsso
ciations\http\UserChoice]
"Progid"="FirefoxURL"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAsso
ciations\https\UserChoice]
"Progid"="FirefoxURL"



Then just right-click and select Merge.


JT

--

[JJ]

Use below REG file. Copy and paste it into Notepad. Change the paths to your
Firefox's installation path. Make sure you use two backslashes just like
below example REG file. Save it as e.g. "SetBrowser.reg". Include the quotes
so that Notepad won't save it as "SetBrowser.reg.txt". Once it's saved,
close Firefox if it's running, then double-click the REG file (choose Yes/OK
when prompted).

If *.html files are also still opened with K-Meleon, SHIFT+RightClick a
*.html file then choose "Open with...". Choose the Firefox application, then
press OK.

**********start of code (don't include this line)**********
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ftp\shell\open\command]
@="c:\\program files\\firefox\\firefox.exe %1"

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ftp\shell\open\ddeexec]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command]
@="c:\\program files\\firefox\\firefox.exe %1"

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\ddeexec]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open\command]
@="c:\\program files\\firefox\\firefox.exe %1"

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open\ddeexec]

[98 Guy]

ja...@nospam.com wrote:

> I'm running Win98se. For many years my default browser was K-Meleon, and
> I also had the highest (usable in 98) version of Firefox installed. (FF
> version 3.x).

Do you have KernelEx installed on your system?

If so, they you should be able to run Opera 12.02. That's the only
version of Opera 12 that will run on a win-98 system (but only if it has
KernelEx).

I think you'd find that Opera 12 to be compatible with many web sites.

I myself still run Firefox 2.0.0.20 as my default browser, and
frequently view many websites with no Page Style if the default
rendering is too unworkable or faulty. But I will resort to Opera 12
for a few sites.

[Mike Easter]

ja...@nospam.com wrote:
> I'm running Win98se.

What is this hardware running W98se? CPU (including flags such as sse2
and cmov or not), ram, graphics.

--
Mike Easter

[ja...@nospam.com]

I have not tried these yet. I did find out that uninstalling both
Firefox and K-meleon, then reinstalling FF still did not set FF as the
default browser.

Anyhow, before trying these things, what is the name of the registry
files (I think there are two) in Win98se? I want to be able to put them
back (from Dos), if I f**k things up. I do have a full backup, but it's
easier to just replace the registry files....

[Lee]

System.dat and user.dat in Windows folder. Both read only and hidden attributes or it tends to vomit all over the place.

FF doesn't set itself as default browser, you have to do that manually under Tools in toolbar. You might have to disallow IE that privilege first in it's own internet options check box line up though. Wasn't automatic in any event except the IE part taking that aspect for itself always. MS was sued over this very issue and grudgingly had to put the checkbox for default browser in internet options that would allow other browsers to play top dog, but it's never automatically done. No one else wants to be dragged into court over it.

[anon...@internet.none]

On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 23:46:56 GMT, Donald G. Davis
<dgd...@blackhole.nyx.net> wrote:

>ja...@nospam.com writes:
>
>>Anyhow, before trying these things, what is the name of the registry
>>files (I think there are two) in Win98se? I want to be able to put them
>>back (from Dos), if I f**k things up. I do have a full backup, but it's
>>easier to just replace the registry files....
>

> The registry files are USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT in Win98.
>
> I thank JT for those registry tweaks. I also had been annoyed for
>years that clicking on an URL in my TeraTerm program always brought up
>Internet Explorer though I had tried to make my default browser Firefox.
>I merged JT's two .REG files into my registry, and they had the desired
>result without any problems. (However, in the "Progid" file I had to
>replace the line "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" with "REGEDIT4"
>for the registry editor to accept it.)
>
> --Donald Davis

I solved that IE opening issue years ago. I renamed the IE file to
*.E_E.

Then I copied calc.exe to that same folder and renamed it to the same as
the IE file. That way, when IE is supposed to open, the calculator opens
instead. However, over time, the calculator sort of quit opening. Almost
like K-meleon became the default. I used to really like K-meleon, but
now it constantly generates security error messages. Sometimes it gets
so bad there is not even time to close it. Thats when I have to use the
3 finger salute. FIrefox gets a few of them errors and script errors,
but it's still pretty usable on the 25% of sites that will load at all
these days.

[ja...@nospam.com]

On Fri, 2 Feb 2018 10:16:08 -0800, Mike Easter <Mi...@ster.invalid>
wrote:

You got me.... I dont even know what most of that stuff means.
It's a 18 year old computer, that is all I know.
I dont see why that matters anyhow. This is about browsers and Win98.
The hardware runs just fine...

[ja...@nospam.com]

On Thu, 01 Feb 2018 18:39:47 -0500, 98 Guy <9...@Guy.C0M> wrote:

>ja...@nospam.com wrote:
>
> > I'm running Win98se. For many years my default browser was K-Meleon,
> > and I also had the highest (usable in 98) version of Firefox
> > installed. (FF version 3.x).
>

>Do you have KernelEx installed on your system?
>
>If so, they you should be able to run Opera 12.02. That's the only
>version of Opera 12 that will run on a win-98 system (but only if it has
>KernelEx).
>
>I think you'd find that Opera 12 to be compatible with many web sites.
>
>I myself still run Firefox 2.0.0.20 as my default browser, and
>frequently view many websites with no Page Style if the default
>rendering is too unworkable or faulty. But I will resort to Opera 12
>for a few sites.

Yes, i have Kernal-EX.
But I would not install Opera on any of my computers for less than
$10,000. Pay me, and I'll do it.
(I can restore Win98 from my backup afterwards).

I've had that piece of shit Opera completely screw up my computer
several times over the years. That piece of crap is nearly a virus.

I run FF 3.6.28. Kernel-ex claims it will run FF up to version 6.x (I
think), but it dont run worth a shit. Ver 3.x seems to work fine though.
Nothing higher than that...

[Paul]

The OSes you can run on a computer, are determined in
small part by the choices the software company made. If
they design the software to use SSE2 instructions (a common
thing), then older processors without SSE2 can't run that OS.
That's why he is asking questions.

"SSE2... initial version of the Pentium 4 in 2001"

Windows 10 for example, has maybe six or seven of those
gubbins you need, to run the OS. Which is why you need
something more modern than a Pentium 4 to run Win10. By
asking about SSE2 and CMOV, implies an OS that doesn't
have quite the same appetite for custom features.

If you want to see just how many of those instruction set
and feature flags there are, this utility lists quite a few
of them. But this isn't likely to run on Windows 98.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/coreinfo

And there's info on where that stuff comes from. The privileged
CPUID instructions have the flags as a series of bits. While Intel
has several utilities for "Processor Identification", I don't know
if there's one for Win98 that dumps the flags. Undoubtedly somebody,
at some time, has written a utility similar to the one described
in this article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID

Linux gives easy access to the info. But not every Linux LiveDVD
boots on old computers (I've tried). And I don't know if Puppy
has the info available or not. You can see an example here, of
/proc/cpuinfo belching up the details.

https://www.cyberciti.biz/media/new/faq/2010/05/linux-intel-vt-proc-cpuinfo.png

Paul

[ja...@nospam.com]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:24:55 +0000 (UTC), "JT" <J...@spam-me-not.invalid>
wrote:

I did this EXACTLY as you said. From above the "version 5.00" line to
below "Progid"="FirefoxURL"

I saved to the desktop. Clicked and selected MERGE.

Windows returned an error saying something like "It's not a valid
registry script"....

[Computer Nerd Kev]

In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion Paul <nos...@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
> If you want to see just how many of those instruction set
> and feature flags there are, this utility lists quite a few
> of them. But this isn't likely to run on Windows 98.
>
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/coreinfo
>
> And there's info on where that stuff comes from. The privileged
> CPUID instructions have the flags as a series of bits. While Intel
> has several utilities for "Processor Identification", I don't know
> if there's one for Win98 that dumps the flags. Undoubtedly somebody,
> at some time, has written a utility similar to the one described
> in this article.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID

CPU-Z does the job, make sure to download the Windows 98 version:
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

> Linux gives easy access to the info. But not every Linux LiveDVD
> boots on old computers (I've tried). And I don't know if Puppy
> has the info available or not. You can see an example here, of
> /proc/cpuinfo belching up the details.
>
> https://www.cyberciti.biz/media/new/faq/2010/05/linux-intel-vt-proc-cpuinfo.png

Executing "cat /proc/cpuinfo" in a Linux terminal should work
in almost any distro and show you all the full specifications.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

[ja...@nospam.com]

On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 23:46:56 GMT, Donald G. Davis
<dgd...@blackhole.nyx.net> wrote:

>ja...@nospam.com writes:
>

>>Anyhow, before trying these things, what is the name of the registry
>>files (I think there are two) in Win98se? I want to be able to put them
>>back (from Dos), if I f**k things up. I do have a full backup, but it's
>>easier to just replace the registry files....
>

> The registry files are USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT in Win98.
>
> I thank JT for those registry tweaks. I also had been annoyed for
>years that clicking on an URL in my TeraTerm program always brought up
>Internet Explorer though I had tried to make my default browser Firefox.
>I merged JT's two .REG files into my registry, and they had the desired
>result without any problems. (However, in the "Progid" file I had to
>replace the line "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" with "REGEDIT4"
>for the registry editor to accept it.)
>
> --Donald Davis

Were you getting that same error I am getting saying it's not a valid
registry script (something to that effect)?

So did you just put Regedit4 on that line?
Like I said in a prior reply, I just copied it exactly as posted and it
wont work.

[ja...@nospam.com]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 07:43:54 +0700, JJ <jj4p...@vfemail.net> wrote:

Ok, I ran both of these scripts. After fixing the header on the first
one. Firefox did then become my default browser. One exception, all .HTM
or .HTML files on my computer still had the K-Meleon icon on them. Even
after uninstallion K-Meleon, this persisted. This makes me wonder where
it obtained that icon, with K-Meleon completely removed (evne the folder
for it). I would have expected that after a reboot, that the icon would
be gone. NOPE.... Still there.....

I finally reinstalled Firefox, right on top of the existing
installation. I just installed it as an upgrade even though it's the
same version. That made the Firefox icon appear on all .HTM / HTML
files.

Now I have another problem. On my desktop, I have several icons that are
direct links to websites. For example, 1. Local Weather 2. Ebay 3. My
own webpage. With K-Meleon, I could open the local weather. If I
clicked on the" my own webpage" icon, that would open in another
K-Meleon window. Now, I can only open ONE of these at a time. If I have
the local weather page loaded, and click on my Ebay url, NOTHING
HAPPENS. I have to either close the open weather page, or copy and paste
the URL from my deesktop link into another tab or window in Firefox.
This is really annoying.

How can I fix this?

Is this a setting inside of Firefox, or a registry issue, or what?

I want to be able to open any webpage by clicking on my links, and have
them open in a new window for each one. That's how it should be....