Why do links in Word and Excel open into IE instead of Firefox?

Can somone explain this to me?

Firefox is my default browser. Clicking on links in the browser page and on html files I have saved in my PC (using Windows Explorer) will open up in a new Firefox 1.5 tab, as they should.

However, for the past couple of days, when I click on a link in a Word or Excel document, it opens up in IE. This is something new. Until now it has worked correctly, opening FF tabs. I have WinXP SP2.

 

xelaw,

First, ensure that Firefox 1.5 is your default browser, and then check your Internet Options to ensure that IE is not checked as default browser.

Are you using Firefox 1.5.0.9? Asking because of the recent security vulnerability reported in 1.5.0.8...

 

Hello, Ramona.

Yes, Firefox is definitely my default browser (as I said, clicking on HTML files in Windows explorer opens FF tabs, and I checked in Tools>options>general). I am using FF 1.5.0.9. As a matter of fact, I first noticed the problem at about the same time that I updated to 1.5.0.9.

 

I noticed the problem a few times, usually, with certain IE-intensive websites. I, generally, get around this problem, using the IE Tab extention..

 

Westside - I found my problem in one of the Mozilla pages - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Default_browser:

I went to start>run and entered "firefox.exe -silent -nosplash -setDefaultBrowser ". That fixed the problem.