Thunderbird links won't open in Firefox

User: inactive Posts:

When I click on a link in Thunderbird, Firefox opens but the address bar shows //\\ in the URL and an error message appears. Usually when I remove the "//" the link will open. But it's a real pain. I have asked a number of forums but the suggestions I received didn't work. So, I switched to SeaMonkey and have no difficulty as long as I'm working with the SeaMonkey mail client and the SeaMonkey browser.
But when I click on a Thunderbird link, the SeaMonkey will work for the first time. If I click on another link in Thunderbird, it will not open and I get the //\\ error in the address bar. I have Windows XP Home Edition.

I guess, If I switched everything to SeaMonkey I'd be OK. However, I liked the Thunderbird/Firefox system and would really like to keep it.

Any idea?

forkys

Seems Thinderbird causes the error. Have you tried reinstalling Thunderbird?
I guess it should be fairly easy to save your messages and addressbook and later import those into your new TB.

User: inactive Posts:

Thanks, Forkys. I've reinstalled Thunderbird a number of times, but it doesn't make any difference. I agree, the problems is definitely with Thunderbird.

forkys

Have you tried setting IE as your default browser to see if it also happens in IE?

User: inactive Posts:

Forkys -- Setting IE as default is one of the few things I hadn't done. I tried it but found that the Thunderbird link works perfectly. It also works correctly when I have a link in a MS Word document. It just won't work with Firefox. I think it is an "about:config" setting but I wouldn't know where to begin to correct it.
Thanks.

Slappy Da Clown

OK

Have you tried reinstalling Firefox itself ? I saw you tried it for TB, but it seems the problem is FF & not TB. It may be an easy fix in about:config but it could just be a glitch a reinstall would fix. Im not up on about:config or I pass that along too. Also have you tried Firetune for FF ? You can find it here
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4534.html

It could fix the problem & you might not have to do anything else.

User: inactive Posts:

Even though I had the current Firefox (1.5.0.6) I deleted the current installation, and did a clean install of a newly downloaded Firefox (also 1.5.0.6). There was no change in the problem. Then I downloaded the Firetune software, installed it, and applied it. After that I got a message that Firefox could not find the server with the URL I had called up. I thank you for your suggestions, even though they didn't pan out. If you think of something else I'd be glad to try them out.

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2747

Launch T-bird and select Edit ->Preferences
Go to the far right and click Advanced then at the bottom of the window Advanced Configuration and click the button Config editor
In the about:config window that comes up put in network in the filter box
scroll down to protocol-handler.app
and make sure that ftp http and https are set for string and mozilla-firefox

User: inactive Posts:

Zlim -- I made the Config Editor changes in http and https in the protocol handler.app as suggested. But the problem continues. Thanks anyway.

patio · Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 5596

TBird version ? ?

Also try creating a new profile in TBird and see if the problem persists...if it goes away your current profile somehow got corrupted.

patio. Cool

goretsky

Hello,

Just out of curiosity, have you checked your computer for malicious software? Also, are you using any software which is designed to preserve the web browser's default home page and search engine settings? If so, does disabling that make any difference?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

usasma · Joined: May 06, 2003 Posts: 5006

One of the tweaking programs (I believe it's X-Setup) will let you set the default string to open when you click on a link.

In this case, i think you're correct that it's an about:config setting - so the X-Setup might help out. Or, you can search the about:config dialog for the \\ string to see if you can locate it.

FWIW - this could also be an about:config issue with TBird (instead of Firefox).

User: inactive Posts:

I created a new profile in Thunderbird, but the problem continues.

User: inactive Posts:

I'm using Thunderbird 1.0.0.5

User: inactive Posts:

I guess I don't know how to check my computer for malicious software. I regularly run SpyBot and Ad-Aware, as well as my anti-virus program. But I don't think they check for malicious software.

seaeagle

If it's not a typo, you're way behind in your Thunderbird version. Try updating to Thunderbird v1.5.0.5 & see if that fixes the problem.

User: inactive Posts:

Sorry, it is a typo. My Thunderbird is 1.5.0.5.

usasma · Joined: May 06, 2003 Posts: 5006

So, it's not the profile that's the problem here.

That leaves:
1) The rest of TBird
2) Your FireFox profile
3) The rest of Firefox.

Save your profile, then delete all the TBird stuff from your profile and from Program Files. Then reinstall TBird and bring your profile back in. Does that fix it?

If not, then it's time for the same process iwth FireFox.

User: inactive Posts:

Hi everybody,

Being frustrated by this same problem, I did some Googling on the subject. I found a list of all the about:config entries on the MozillaZine site (http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries). I went to the "Network.*" link and snooped around. Thanks to zlim, I kind of new what I was looking for. Look for the "Network.protocol-handler.app.(protocol)" line. There is a link to more information about registering a protocol for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (the link is http://kb.mozillazine.org/Register_protocol if you want to skip straight to the punchline). Being a Linux user, I followed those instructions and it worked just fine for me. I assume the others work as well. The reason zlim's fix did not work for you is because that fix is designed to work only on Linux, not Windows. WIndows requires a registry hack. Go figure. Interestingly enough, I have Windows XP on a different computer and it worked just fine for me on that one without having to tweak it. I'm sorry if my message is not formatted correctly; I just signed up on this site to post this for everyone.

User: inactive Posts:

Snowboarder 13 -- Thanks much for you suggestion. It really looks as if it has the answer to my problems. My difficulty is that I know nothing about editing the windows registry and am extremely reluctant to try. In fact I really don't understand the instructions in the MozillaZine Register protocol discussion. During the past couple of months, I've decided to use SeaMonkey as my browser. I get the same problem linking from Thunderbird, but it doesn't happen until the second time I click on a link.

Maybe I'll get up the nerve to learn how to edit the Registry, but until then, thanks very much for you help.