Opera Browser 9.64 update hosed my html associations
Although I use Firefox as my primary (default) browser and web design test tool, I have kept the latest version of Opera browsers installed as well, just to make sure it renders my layouts correctly. Today, March 3, 2009, I received a security alert that Opera Software, of Norway, had released a security update to the Opera Browser. This was in response to a vulnerability reported on CERT, on March 3, 2009. The new version is number 9.64. Like I usually do, I downloaded the new version, ran the setup file as an Administrator (using Run As), from my XP Professional Power User account and upgraded from the previous version (9.63). When Opera opened everything looked fine and I closed it and went on about my business, working with html files I was editing.
Begin Rant:
I was about an hour later, still logged into my Power User account, that I went to the still open directory where these .html files live and double clicked on one, expecting it to open in Firefox, which is my default browser. Instead, to my surprise, it opened in Opera! I had not made any changes in the setup of Opera. I told the program to perform an Upgrade installation, just like the previous versions had been. None of them ever stole my default browser association and few even asked about being made the default browser. This is something new and as it turned out, slightly difficult and aggravating to resolve.
When I found that Firefox was not opening .html files any more I checked its options to see if it was still the "default browser;" which it claimed it was. Had it not been, I would have been able to make it so, using the Check Now button (Tools > Options > Advanced > System Defaults). But, Firefox thought it still was the default browser, so I tried disassociating .html files within Opera, but nothing changed. About that time I decided switch to my Administrator level account to uninstall Opera and see if it gave back the previous association to Firefox, but no luck. I went into Set Access and Defaults and reset Firefox as the Default browser, which worked in the Admin account, so I logged off it and back into the Power User account. Note, that you cannot change the Program Access and Defaults from a Power User account, only an Administrator level account, in XP.
Back in my Power User account I found that it now associated .html files with Windows Notepad! Every html file I double clicked on opened in Notepad, not Firefox! I decided to do an end run around the Windows File Association defense and right clicked on an html file, in the aforementioned folder, and chose Properties. The Properties sheet showed the html files opened with Notepad and offered a button to Change that. I used the button and chose Firefox to open .html files, clicked Apply and OK. When I tried opening an html file it still wanted to use Notepad, so I restarted the computer. This act alone cures a lot of mess-ups and it fixed this one.
The point of this article isn't just to show my readers how to recover from a browser file type association theft, but also to let Opera Software know that one of their users is pretty #@$%*~ off right now about having to go through all this work to keep a long ago established file type association that their update broke, without any word of warning. Also, it may be a long time before I reinstall an Opera Browser, which I was only using to test website layouts for compatibility anyway.
End Rant
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