MSIE won't relinquish default browser status

One month ago my default browser mysteriously changed from Firefox to MSIE v11.0. When I went to switch default back to Firefox, it wouldn't work, neither by Firefox Options screen nor by Default Program control panel applet. MSIE Option tab states that MSIE is not the default browser. I set Firefox as default browser with every run but system doesn't comply, not ever for that one browsing session. Clicking URL or shortcut always launches MSIE.

I am running Windows 7 Premium Home Edition (sp1) on a desktop PC with plenty of free disk space (Total 900 GB, Used 65 GB), 2.90 GHz ADM Phenom II X4 840T Processor, and a Hitachi CD/DVD drive.

I've scanned my system with Norton 360, ClamWin, Emsisoft, Sofos, Malwarebytes Antimalware, SuperAntispyware, and a few rootkit scanners, and found nothing.

I've reinstalled Firefox v25.0 but URLs and shortcuts still launch MSIE.

I really don't want to turn my system back a full month (that's how long the problem has existed) using a backup disk image. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Greetings, rustysavage, and welcome to MajorGeeks.

You might try navigating to Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program - choose .htm from that list, press Change Program..., select Firefox and make sure that Always use the selected program... is checked.

Do the same for .html and then see if the defaults have changed by attempting to open a web page.

Shot in the dark, but you never know.

 

Have you tried removing it in Add/Remove?

If you set Firefox in Options>Advanced, it still reverts back?

You should really get in the habit of doing weekly image backups - that's saved me more than once.

 

Thank you for your reply

Yea, I've done both those things and it still reverts back to MSIE. I do daily image backups but the problem started a month ago and I blew it off at that time because I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to fix. How wrong I was. The strange thing is that the option tabs of both Firefox and MSIE state that they are not the default browser.

 

Thank you for the replay
Yes, I've already tried associating Firefox to the internet-related extensions and protocols. System retains the former settings but doesn't register my preferences for the 3 protocols (FTP, HTTP, HTTPS). Your suggestion prompted me to check the settings for MSIE... and there's the problem. MSIE is listed as the default app for launching all 3 protocols and doesn't allow me to change it (checked check boxes are grayed out). So, that was a pretty good shot in the dark. I have no idea where to go from here but at least I know what's wrong. Thanks again.

 

Here's another thing to try:

Download Revo - http://www.majorgeeks.com/content/p...hread.php?p=1847725&posted=1&ss=1080j423104j4

Type in the name of the browser and click advanced and see if you can get rid of all traces of that program.

You might try uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox - I can't understand why it won't accept the Default setting.

I didn't realize that the browser was IE.
You can eliminate it and it will revert to a previous version.

If you can't get it to keep Firefox as default, you can always just open Firefox.

I think you probably got into this by downloading a program and not paying attention to what it was going to include with the download.

In the future, when you download a program, always click Custom and uncheck any box that wants to include any crap and on the following pages also click decline and the download will continue.

Hope you can get it squared away without losing too much of your info.

 

Just realized that the browser is IE 11.
You can't eliminate IE, but you can revert to a previous version.

Until you get your problem squared away, at least you can open Firefox manually.

Please disregard what I said above about you downloading a program and getting this.

That's not what happened in this case.:-o

 

I rolled MSIE back from v11.0 to v10.0 and rebooted. Still can't get MSIE to give up control of the internet protocols (FTP,HTTP,HTTPS). I tried again to change these protocol associations to Firefox via the "Default Programs" control panel applet but Windows refuses to grant my requests, leaving MSIE as the default program for launching webpages and links. I tried associating all internet related file types and protocols with Firefox but Windows just refuses to allow URLs/links to be opened by any program other than MSIE.

I even tried using Regedit to directly edit the registry entries responsible for storing these browser preferences but Regedit would not allow it, informing me that there were unspecified errors in changing the registry values in question.

I ran the Tweaking.com tool for resetting registry privileges and then tried again with Regedit, but alas that did no good. I'm stumped, but thanks anyways for taking the time to respond.

 

For the sake of those following this thread - I finally found out what was blocking changes to my default browser. It was Norton 360. I disabled it, switched default browser to Firefox, re-enabled Norton 360, and now it's protecting Firefox with the same tenacity that it protected MSIE for the last 6 weeks.