System default browsers vs. Win XP Roaming Profiles

Great article that will no doubt be useful. But unfortunately it doesn't quite fit. Here's a quote from the article: "NOTES: Being registered as the default Start menu Internet application is not the same as being registered as the default Web browser. The default Web browser is used for launching arbitrary URLs from anywhere in the system. The Start menu Internet application merely controls the program that is launched when the user clicks the Internet icon on the Start menu." What I need to change is the default Web browser, not the Start menu Internet application.Thanks for the assist, though. I'll take your advice and cross-post the problem to the sites you mentioned.

Hi, these registry tweaks may help....
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/gp/728.mspx?mfr=true
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFAQ.htm#IE_Default

which have bee referred to by this post:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22070471/Set-Default-Browser-via-Group-Policy-Registry.html

Regards,

Rob.

I apologize for not explaining my problem more clearly. I don't want to lock down the preferred web browser, I want to enable students to change it. Here is the scenario:
- As administrator, I open "Set Program Access and Defaults". I select "Custom" and select "Use my curent web browser". My personal default web browser as administrator is Netscape.
- A student logs in. His default web browser is IE. But when he clicks on a link in an application like Word, it opens in Netscape, in spite of his default browser setting.
I want ALL links to open in the student's preferred browser, not the administrator's. But this appears to be a system setting and students don't have permissions to use "Set Program Access and Defaults."

I hope that is a better explanation of what I want to accomplish.

Thanks!

You may require elevated user rights, or Runas in order to do this.

Could be issue with security since an Admin password will be required and visible in a batch file.

Depends on how tight you want security.

I hope this helps !

SysExpert-

I suspect you are correct. I'll leave this question open for another day or two to see if any actual solutions are presented. If not, I'll close it and award you the points. Knowing there is NOT a solution is in itself a solution!

If your environment is very tightly locked down, and the users have direct access to use Regedit, then I suspect this cannot be done.  The registry file here:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/reg/IE_Default_Browser.reg

sets IE as default by modifying HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT values, so if your students do not have access to that, then I suspect this cannot be done.

They will only be allowed to change the browser via script if they can do it manually.  Are you able to change the default browser under a student profile manually?  While I can't find any exact info on how a different browser selected changes the system, perhaps you could run RegMon, change the browser, see what changes in the registry, and make a .Reg file out of it....

Regards,

Rob.

see

auto-it Free scripting tool, keyboard macros

http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/

It also includes a  compiler, but it is not a very  secure solution for a serious hacker.


I hope this helps !

Sorry for the delay in replying. I'm close to a solution and want to wait to report until I actually get it working. Thanks!

I apologize for the additional delay - I was out of the office yesterday.

Well, I think I have solved the problem, but it was pretty convoluted.  First, SysExpert's original post proved relevant to this particular problem after all. Then I found another link which expanded on the information in the Microsoft link (http://newoldthing.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/how-does-your-browsers-know-that-its-not-the-default-browser/) Armed with some clues as to where to look in the registry for the default browser changes, I started experimenting. To my surprise, I found that the correct registry settings were actually being made when a user selected a new default browser. However, those keys were NOT being saved when the roaming profile was written back out to the network. Examining the UPHClean messages, it appears that when the user logs off, winlogon.exe is not releasing the handle and UPHClean is forcing it to close, and the changes don't get saved. This is an issue separate from this problem. I'll work on a solution and if I get stuck I'll open a new problem here.

For posterity, the keys that control the browser settings on a user basis (which, if available, override the system settings) are in HKCU\Software\classes, specifically .htm, .html, .shtml, .xht, .xthml,  FTP, GOPHER, HTTP, HTTPS, and <browser>HTTP and <browser>URL (where <browser> is the default browser selected by the user). As a work-around for the profile not being saved with these keys, I've created a logoff script that saves them in a .reg file in the user's profile and a logon script that reloads them. This fixes the problem until I have time to deal with the reasons they're not getting saved automatically.

Thanks to all who repsonded. SysExpert's suggestions were the most useful in resolving this problem, so I am awarding the points to him.

Gazaway, what an excellent way to overcome such a problem.  Great work!

And thank you very much for posting your findings and solution, much appreciated!

Good luck with the UPHClean issue....

Regards,

Rob.