Once upon a time, my e-mail worked just the way I wanted it to. I could click a link in any e-mail I received and it would open Netscape and load the page. Didn't matter if I was reading the email in Outlook, Netscape Communicator, or Incredi-Mail. Netscape would obediently open up, and load the page. Then, horror of horrors, I got a worm. The dreaded Klez worm that e-mails everyone in your address book. Luckily, being an odd duck, I have myself in my address book, so when I received an unexpected e-mail from myself, I knew something was amiss

I went to pcpitstop and did an online virus scan, discovered I had the virus, trotted to the symantec website and downloaded the Klez Worm Killer utility. The worm died, and so did my ability to click on links in e-mail. Oh, it tried to work. I'd click a link, and a little window would pop up, informing my that ntscpe.exe couldn't be found, and would I indicate exactly where the file could be found? No problem! I'd just click "browse" find my Netscape directory, and tell it to look there for the file. Suddenly, my e-mail programs were blind and dumb. No file by that name anywhere in existence. Obviously, there was a mistake, because I was using Netscape with no problem, so the file had to be there. To further complicate matters, it remembered that I wanted to use Netscape to open links, and it specifically requested the location of the Netscape file, not any browser. I couldn't even tell it to just use Internet Explorer to open links. Something was broken, and it was up to me to fix it. I had no clue on this one, so I had to go to google for some answers. .

The first thing you should do is run the Microsoft Internet Explorer Repair Tool. Bet you didn't know such a critter even existed! It's amazingly well hidden, following Microsoft's usual credo of "make everything as hard as possible for the end user". Go to "Start", "Settings", "Control Panel" and pick "Add/Remove Programs". Scroll down to the Microsoft Internet Explorer entry, and click Add/Remove, then pick "Repair Internet Explorer". There! Wasn't that obvious? Restart your computer. If you have a cable modem,or are on a network, be prepared for your internet connection to not work. That would be too easy! Netscape will connect properly, but not Internet Explorer. Go to "Start" "Settings" "Control Panel" "Internet Options" click the "connections" tab, then the LAN Settings button. Check the "automatically detect settings" box, and uncheck the "use proxy settings". This will let you connect to the internet again, and your e-mail links will now open in Internet Explorer.

What if you don't want Internet Explorer to open when you click an e-mail link? Find the icon for whatever browser you prefer, either on your desktop, or the quick launch bar on the bottom left by the start button. Right click it, and pick "properties". At the top is a slot that says "target" with the path to the brower highlighted. Right click that, and pick "copy". Now, right click your "Start" button and choose "explore". Click "view" from the menu across the top, "folder options" from the drop down list, and then click the "file types" tab. Scroll down to the section that has these entries-URL: File Transfer Protocol, URL: Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and URL: Hypertext Transfer. Highlight the first one, and pick "edit" from the buttons on the right. A new box will open. In the large white box (it says "action" above it) it says "open". Highlight the word "open", and click the "edit" button underneat the box. In the new window that opens, there will be a highlighted entry in the box labeled "application to perform action". Simply right click there, and choose "paste". This will copy your preferred browser path instead of Internet Explorer. Click "OK", "OK" again, and you'll be back at the original "file types" window. Repeat these steps for the remaining two URL entries mentioned above.