Locate Link Browser Outlook 2003 Internet Explorer 8

[Nazteq]

OK, many have posted asking how to fix the Locate Link Browser dialog box
when clicking on a URL within an email with many different configurations and
many different possible solutions and many knowledge base documents that have
not helped me at all.

I am specifically looking for a solution to fix the prompting of the Locate
Link Browser using Outlook 2003 and Internet Explorer 8. As a computer tech,
I have definitively narrowed the origination point of this problem to the
installation of IE8, I have the problem on many machines, all after
installing IE8.

Temporary workaround - Have IE8 open prior to clicking on the link within an
email or make Firefox the default browser.

[Nazteq]

After re-reading the KB doc on changing the URL:Hypertext Transfer Protocol
to Open using iexplore.exe, I figured out the piece I was missing was the
extension is None.

Now that I have found the right File Type and edited the URL:Hyptertext
Transfer Protocol, my issue symptoms have changed from prompting with Locate
Link Browser and a blank page in IE8 TO prompting still but opening the
requested link.

Any ideas?

[Nazteq]

More symptoms: After reselecting the Open action to IE8 and enjoying the link
being opened, albeit with the Locate Link Browser window still being
generated, I noticed that I am prompted that IE is not my default browser and
would I like it to be.

If you select Yes, you are back to the same issue. If you say No and
deselect the Ask Me Every Time checkbox, opening links still works, albeit
with the Locate Link Browswer window still being generated.

Again, if you leave IE8 open before clicking a URL within Outlook, it always
works right and doesn't open the Locate Link Browser.

[Nazteq]

I usually don't talk to myself this much...

There is a hotfix for this issue, KB 968689, didn't work for me.

The KB suggests an SP4 is coming soon, can anyone confirm?