Https urls no longer link to the webbrower from one program.

[micky]

Https urls no longer link to the webbrower when called from Forte Agent
v1.93.

I've made no changes to Agent, but some alien force changed my default
webbrowser from Firefox to AVG Browser. I changed it back and it
changed it again. This time, it tried to install 5 startup programs
related to AVG Browser. Anvir noticed that and I stopped it. I then
changed it from AVG Browser back to Firefox again (and uninstalled AVG
Browser, that I never knowingly installed. Must have been sneaked in
with an AVG update).

Now clicking on a link from my email program or from Notepad++ opens the
link fine, just as before, but clicking on links in Forte Agent gives a
message "No application is associated with HTTPS." and it suggests I go
to Options / General Preferances / URL Types. I go there and it has
already selected the url type HTTPS, and the settings are just like they
used to be. It says to usa the Windows Registry entry. (Also checked
is "enable highlighting and launching".)

Isn't that what I just set to Firefox? IIUC when I went to Windows
Settings and changed the default web browser back from AVG to Firefox,
that's exactly what I was setting, the Windows Registry entry, right?
So how come it works for the email program and Notepad++ but not for
Agent? And what can I do about it?

TIA

[Paul]

SetUserFTA is for filetype association.

http://al.howardknight.net/?STYPE=msgid&MSGI=%3Ct56u1o%247458%241%40solani.org%3E

SetDefaultBrowser displays the currently installed browsers
and allows you to select one.

Presumably these are not magic, and they assume the registry entries are not
damaged or missing stuff. And it's quite possible yours are damaged.

I'd try the browser one first. The browser one should work just as
well as the Windows 10 interface for doing the selection. But only
trying it out, will tell you whether there are any hidden repair
features.

Part of the puzzle, is figuring out what kind of registry entry
actually gets triggered when you're in Forte Agent. Is it a URI one ?
Is it HTTP one ? Is it looking for a browser ? You can use ProcMon (Sysinternals)
while clicking on a link in Forte, to get a hint. The registry entries
(even if they are missing), might get logged in ProcMon.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8703-restore-default-file-type-associations-windows-10-a.html

Note that, the files available for download there, are not
as "pure" as they might seem. The OS they were collected from,
already had applications installed. Whether this was intentional
or not, is an open question.

Have a backup ready, in case you make things worse :-)

Paul

[Ralph Fox]

What you can do about it:

In Agent 1.93, use custom settings for the https protocol
as shown in the screen-shot below:

screen-shot: <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=25_9gb4dh_agent_1-93_https_custom_settings.png>


How come it works for the email program and Notepad++ but not for Agent:

Windows 10 has changed the place in the registry where URL
associations are stored.

Your Agent 1.93 is looking in the old place in the Windows registry,
as it used to be when Agent 1.93 was released on 24 Dec 2002 [*1].

The email program and Notepad++ are using the settings from the
current (new) place in the Windows registry.

It appears your "alien force" also set the old place in the registry
to the AVG browser. But when you changed the default web browser from
AVG Browser back to Firefox again, Windows only updates the current
(new) place in the registry [*2]. The old place in the registry would
still have the AVG Browser in it.


[*1] HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open\command

[*2] HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice


--
Kind regards
Ralph

God ana wat hwæt him weaxendum winter bringað.

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 16 Jul 2022 03:07:13 -0400, Paul

LOL I was still reading the link you gave and the link that link gave
when Ralph answered, and his answer was better for my sleepy mind.
Thanks.


> Paul

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 16 Jul 2022 20:51:10 +1200, Ralph Fox

At this point, I understood what you said but still didn't get why I
"fixed" it but it didn't work.

>
> It appears your "alien force" also set the old place in the registry
> to the AVG browser. But when you changed the default web browser from
> AVG Browser back to Firefox again, Windows only updates the current
> (new) place in the registry [*2].

But this explains it.

> The old place in the registry would
> still have the AVG Browser in it.

If I hadn't deleted the AVG Brower, that probably would have beeen true,
and I could have just searched for every occurrence of AVG Browser** and
replaced it with Firefox, but I had uninstalled it.

Maybe I should have done search and replace in the registry before
deleting, but my thinking didn't make that much progress. Since it
changed the default browser twice, I was afraid it would do it a third
time so I deleted the browser to prevent that.

>[*1] HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell\open\command

So what I did is find this, which existed up to https, and I added
shell, open, and command and then made a default key that matched what
other places had, and voila, it works again. Thanks a lot Ralph.

>[*2] HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice

Before I posted, I had also tried to specify the DDE, fields that were
filled in already. After I did that, it started a new window in Firefox
but didn't put the url in the url box, even though "%1" was in one of
the parameters. I modified that, prefixing it with -osint -url like the
other Firefox link was, but that didn't change anything.

Getting it back the way it was is much better.

**I should still do that, except I don't know how to spell it. Online
they call it AVG Secure Browser. I don't remember, so I'll just
consider any entries still there to be some of those broken links AVG
keeps telling me are bad.

AVG has a lot of darn nerve messing with my system. If I didn't know
you guys, I'd have had to spend hours on this.

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 16 Jul 2022 05:50:41 -0400, micky

<NONONO...@fmguy.com> wrote:

>
>So what I did is find this, which existed up to https, and I added
>shell, open, and command and then made a default key that matched what
>other places had, and voila, it works again. Thanks a lot Ralph.

I have to do this for http too, don't I, and maybe other protocols.

I have ver 1.9 installed on the desktop too. I think what I should do is
look for every occurrence of Firefox in the registry there and reproduce
them on the laptop. Ayeyayay. Do I really have to do the ones with
loads of numbers HKEY-CLASSES
ROOT\CLSID\{15A1833DBP-49E2-3407F-AF8T-FA744A7D2507}inProcServer32 for
example. I never did know what these are for.

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 16 Jul 2022 06:11:29 -0400, micky

Or will reinstalling Agent put in most of them? The registry is such a
pain. If they were using an ini file, I could just copy the whole file
from one computer to the other. I've always been suspicious tha the
registry was there in large part to make defeating their copyrights and
cheating them out of money more difficult, right?

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

micky <NONONO...@fmguy.com> wrote:

>I've always been suspicious tha the
>registry was there in large part to make defeating their copyrights and
>cheating them out of money more difficult, right?

The registry provides no particular DRM protection. In theory, it beats having a
bunch of different .ini files floating around in various user and system
folders. In practice, it didn't help that much.

--
Usenet: The world's first (and best) social network.

[Ralph Fox]

On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 05:50:41 -0400, micky wrote:

> Before I posted, I had also tried to specify the DDE, fields that were
> filled in already. After I did that, it started a new window in Firefox
> but didn't put the url in the url box, even though "%1" was in one of
> the parameters. I modified that, prefixing it with -osint -url like the
> other Firefox link was, but that didn't change anything.

1. Best turn off DDE. These days it is "historic".


2. The command line should look like this, with the correct path to
Firefox on *your* computer AND including all four "quote marks"
shown.

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -osint -url "%1"

The reference for what the command line should look like is in your
registry at
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL-################\shell\open\command]
where the ################ is a random string of 16 characters which
may depend on your computer.

Do _not_ change this part of the registry - this is set by installing
Firefox and tells Windows what Firefox needs for a command line.


3. You will note there is nothing in
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL-################\shell\open\ddeexec].
This is set by installing Firefox, and tells Windows no DDE.



--
Kind regards
Ralph
🦊

[Ralph Fox]

On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 05:50:41 -0400, micky wrote:

> So what I did is find this, which existed up to https, and I added
> shell, open, and command and then made a default key that matched what
> other places had, and voila, it works again. Thanks a lot Ralph.

On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 06:11:29 -0400, micky wrote:

> I have to do this for http too, don't I, and maybe other protocols.

Yes.

And mailto, but only if you use Firefox to open mailto links.

You could do it for ftp too, but Firefox no longer supports ftp.
You can still pass an ftp URL to Firefox, but Firefox will then ask to
open another program to handle ftp - like WinSCP or FileZilla.

Check out Firefox's protocols listed here in the registry
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Firefox-################\Capabilities\URLAssociations]
where ################ is a random string of letters.

Do _not_ change this part of the registry - this is set by installing

Firefox and tells Windows what Firefox can handle and how.

> I have ver 1.9 installed on the desktop too. I think what I should do is
> look for every occurrence of Firefox in the registry there and reproduce
> them on the laptop. Ayeyayay. Do I really have to do the ones with
> loads of numbers HKEY-CLASSES
> ROOT\CLSID\{15A1833DBP-49E2-3407F-AF8T-FA744A7D2507}inProcServer32 for
> example. I never did know what these are for.

Do not touch these unless you know what you are doing.
I believe these are set by installing Firefox.
The {15A1833DBP-49E2-3407F-AF8T-FA744A7D2507} may depend
on which computer it is on -- here, that part is different.

On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 06:16:03 -0400, micky wrote:

> Or will reinstalling Agent put in most of them?

I presume you mean re-installing *Firefox*.

> The registry is such a
> pain. If they were using an ini file, I could just copy the whole file
> from one computer to the other. I've always been suspicious tha the
> registry was there in large part to make defeating their copyrights and
> cheating them out of money more difficult, right?

You can export the registry to a .reg file which looks just like
an ini file, except that the text is Unicode. And import.


These days some registry entries contain hash codes which depend
on which computer they are on. One of the purposes is to make it
harder for malware to hijack your associations.

If it were an ini file, the hash codes would still depend on which
computer they are on. Copying from one computer to another would
not put the correct hash codes on the new computer.


--
Kind regards
Ralph
🦊

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 17 Jul 2022 09:58:20 +1200, Ralph Fox

Okay. Thanks again.

I'll do what you say above.

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Sun, 17 Jul 2022 09:58:20

+1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 05:50:41 -0400, micky wrote:
>
>> So what I did is find this, which existed up to https, and I added
>> shell, open, and command and then made a default key that matched what
>> other places had, and voila, it works again. Thanks a lot Ralph.
>
>On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 06:11:29 -0400, micky wrote:
>
>> I have to do this for http too, don't I, and maybe other protocols.
>
>Yes.
>
>And mailto, but only if you use Firefox to open mailto links.

And it turns out, although most links work, when I try to open pdf files
from Eudora, now it goes to Edge. Why edge I don't know since the other
protocol went to Chrome.

But these I;ve been able to fix with Settings / Default apps.

Do you all think it would do any good to complain to AVG about how much
of my time they've wasted (plus the people who don't have you to ask.)

[Nobody]

On Mon, 18 Jul 2022 19:50:31 -0400, micky <NONONO...@fmguy.com>
wrote:

Why is this whole thread being cross-posted to
alt.comp.s'ware.firefox?

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Mon, 18 Jul 2022 17:13:27

Did you read the thread from the start? I think it's pretty clear.