I will post my problem in two parts. The first part describes the problem as it stands now, so after reading Part One, perhaps an XP studmuffin would need no more information to post a quick and easy solution (sigh). For everyone else, Part Two contains a summary of how I got here; perhaps this information is useful.
Part One
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I'm having trouble with Internet Explorer 6 (SP1). It works fine for surfing the web, but whenever I double click on a .HTM, .HTML, or .MHT file saved on my computer, it reacts rather strangely. If IE6 is already running, then the document opens without problems. But if IE6 is not already running, then a window pops up with a message like the following:
"Windows cannot find 'C:\filename.html'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search."
But even stranger is that IE6 then proceeds to open the file just fine. So, the file opens in IE6 like it should, but I have an error message window on the monitor saying the file cannot be found.
When I delete and manually define web file types under "Tools - Folder Options - File Types" -without- using DDE, the problem goes away, so I'm thinking something is wrong with the Dynamic Data Exchange thingee. Since DDE obviously serves some purpose, I'd prefer fixing the problem to patching it. Also, manually defining types maps web files to registry keys of the form ft00000#, instead of the usual htmlfile and mhtmlfile keys, and it causes IE6 to not be my default browser.
My guess is that when IE6 is running, DdeConnect successfully initiates a conversation with IExplore (application) and the DDE command string ("%1",,-1,0,,,,) in the ddeexec key succeeds, so everything works; but when IE6 is not running, then DdeConnect fails to initiate a conversation with IE6, and for some reason, instead of just moving on to the opennew command key like it normally does, XP first gives an error message stating that the file could not be found. This is where I'm stuck right now. If anyone has advice, I'd appreciate the help.
And even if you don't know why DDE fails, you might still save the day if repairing my .html and .mht keys is the fix. Here's what my .html key looks like.
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html]
@="htmlfile"
"Content Type"="text/html"
This seems incomplete. For example, it has no shell_ex or persistent handler keys (whatever those are for).
