Firefox 3 + IE6

[johnnyzero]

Hi Mouser,

I've used BrowserTraySwitch for ages - great software!

Unfortunately, since installing Firefox 3 Beta4, it no longer lets me switch my default browsers between FF3 & IE6. It's kinda hard to tell since there are so many registry entries involved, but certainly it doesn't correctly change the URL shortcut association.

I've tried your suggestion of manually setting each browser as the default once, but that doesn't fix it.

One more thing: my config.ini file is empty - I'm relying on BrowserTraySwitch's auto-detect.

Any ideas on how I might fix this?

best,
JohnB

[mouser]

a couple of things i need to know first:
1) can you set the default browsers sucessfully from within the browsers themselves? ie if you tell FF3 to be your default, is it obeyed? same question for IE?
2) can browsertrayswitch not switch to either of them successfully? or is it just switching to FF3 that doesnt work?

[johnnyzero]

Thanks for your quick reply, Mouser.

Duh - I should've mentioned those things in my original post.

1) can you set the default browsers sucessfully from within the browsers themselves? ie if you tell FF3 to be your default, is it obeyed? same question for IE?

Yes, that works fine for both browsers.

2) can browsertrayswitch not switch to either of them successfully? or is it just switching to FF3 that doesnt work?

The problem appears to be "bi-directional" - I can't switch from either browser to the other browser.

Weird, huh? If it were simply an issue of FF3 compatibility, BrowserTraySwitch should still be able to switch back to IE6 like it always has. Maybe FF3 creates (or breaks) some registry entry that we don't know about?

best,
JohnB

[mouser]

it's insane how many different ways there are to mess with the default browser. it's ridiculous.
ok what i need you to do for me is install a registry snapshot-compare tool, and compare your registry when IE is default vs when FF3 is default -- that will tell me which registry entries are changed and i can add support in browsertrayswitch to make those changes.

[johnnyzero]

Will do. Any suggestions on a freeware registry snapshot/diff utility?

thanks,
JohnB

[Veign]

it's insane how many different ways there are to mess with the default browser. it's ridiculous.
ok what i need you to do for me is install a registry snapshot-compare tool, and compare your registry when IE is default vs when FF3 is default -- that will tell me which registry entries are changed and i can add support in browsertrayswitch to make those changes.

Here's a tool:
http://www.veign.com/blog/2008/04/compare-your-registry-before-and-after.html

[johnnyzero]

Thanks, Mouser - attached is the RegShot "compare" file (before: default=FF3; after: default=IE6). Hopefully that will help us troubleshoot this issue.

Of course, I'd be happy to "beta test" any prelim updates you make to BrowserTraySwitch.

btw, thanks for the tip on RegShot. Great tool - can't believe I've never used it before.

best,
JohnB

ps: you'll need to rename the .txt file as .htm - forum doesn't allow uploads of .htm files.

[johnnyzero]

Just a quick update: I installed the new FF3 RC1 yesterday, which includes a new option during install to make FF your default browser. Just so you know, this does not fix the issue I've described - I was hoping it might. Oh well...

best,
JohnB

ps: unrelated topic - Firefox3 RC1 does NOT render the DonationCoder Forum pages correctly - screenshot attached. I assume the same is true with any SMF-based forums.

[mouser]

Thanks for the info johnny, i'm going to try to address the browsertrayswitch soon i just have to handle a few other more pressing matters first.

As for the FF3, that's not good.. looks like css stylesheet is not being used properly.. i'll have to try to figure out why.

[sri]

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/defaultbrowser.htm

[johnnyzero]

Looks like you fixed the stylesheet - it now renders correctly in FF3.

JohnB