If you update your web browser, chances are the update process will screw up how http and https text hyperlinks work and from then you are unable to click links in applications such as Outlook without getting the following error message :

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

or, in French :

Cette opération a été annulée en raison de restrictions en vigueur sur cet ordinateur. Veuillez contacter votre administrateur système.


What happens is two things :

- the internal .htm and .html references are screwed up, and no matter how many Windows settings are supposed to get you back to default Internet Explorer settings, this won't repair those references.

- Firefox, if you happen to want to make it your default web browser, will prompt you to do so on startup, but as you press the corresponding option, won't fix the .htm and .html references and will bork a new one by creating a FirefoxHTML-ECSKJHKJZUIYIUY reference instead of the FirefoxHTML reference.

What you can do, if your intention is to use Internet Explorer whenever a link is clicked in say Outlook :

- hit the Windows+R key on the keyboard
- type "regedit" and hit enter
- Windows will prompt you to confirm. Confirm.
- expand the following registry key : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.htm
- on the right hand side, the first string is called the default string and should contain htmlfile.
- if that isn't the case, right-click on this string, and click Edit/Modify.
- do the same thing with key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.html
- you can now exit the registry editor
- links should work properly

If you would like to use Firefox :

- hit the Windows+R key on the keyboard
- type "regedit" and hit enter
- Windows will prompt you to confirm. Confirm.
- expand the following registry key : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.htm
- on the right hand side, the first string is called the default string and should contain FirefoxHTML.
- if that isn't the case, right-click on this string, and click Edit/Modify.
- do the same thing with key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.html
- lookup HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/FirefoxHTML
- if it exists, then all is fine
- if it does not exist, but a similarly named key such as FirefoxHTML-EC6489787ZYZ exists, right-click on the key on the left hand side, and choose Rename. Then rename it to FirefoxHTML. In other words, remove in the name the portion of the string starting with the dash.
- you can now exit the registry editor
- links should work properly