Set Firefox as your default browser

Q I recently set up a Hotmail email account in addition to my usual ISP email address.
My default web browser is Mozilla Firefox but since going onto the Hotmail site, whenever I read an email in Outlook Express and there is a link to another page, it opens in Internet Explorer rather than in Firefox.

Firefox still opens OK when I click on its icon from the desktop – the problem is only when there is a linked page.

Robert Freedman

A It sounds like Internet Explorer is the default web browser in Windows. You can make Firefox check to see if it is the default each time it loads.

In Firefox, click the Tools menu, then Options, and select the Advanced option from the row along the top of the dialogue box that appears.

Select the General tab and make sure the box at the bottom, marked ‘Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser’ is ticked. Click the Check Now button and follow the prompts if any appear.

Next time you start Firefox it will tell you if the default has been changed and you can change it back. If that doesn’t work, click the Start menu and select Set Program Access and Defaults.

If that does not appear, open the Control Panel and select ‘Add or Remove Programs’, then choose Set Program Access and Defaults from the left-hand pane in the window that appears. Click the Custom section and make sure Mozilla Firefox is selected from the list, then click OK.

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