Hyperlink Error in Outlook

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:37:26 GMT

I still have not given up the habit of sitting on top of problems for long time before I even attempt to solve them. Latest of these incidents is the error I faced with hyperlinks in Outlook. I got the following error when I was clicking on a URL given inside a mail marked as junk.

"This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator."

Finally I had to copy/paste the URL into the browser to open it. It was so natural for me to assume that this behaviour is due to the security settings applied against junk mails.

But I was wrong. Next day I faced the same issue with a normal e-mail in my inbox. My laziness clubbed with this misleading error message made me think that I am facing this issue because of some new security feature introduced in Outlook 2007 as part of regular software updates. So I ignored the message again and continued to copy/paste hyperlinks to the browser. But after some time I found it very frustrating. Copy/paste became impossible when I got a mail with URL embedded in an image. This time I was forced to solve the problem.

I assumed that there is a way to disable this "security feature" and I looked for some sort of settings in few obvious places in Outlook. But no help. Then I did Live and Google searches and realised that there can be multiple reasons for this problem though there was no definitive answer. I tried to experiment the easiest solution. The solution I tried was nothing but to check that Outlook is the default E-mail program in my computer. And to my surprise, it worked like a charm! Here is what I did

Open Internet Explorer
Click Tools --> Internet Options --> Programs tab --> Set Programs button under Internet programs
In the Default programs window click "Set program access and computer defaults"

4. Select "Custom" and choose Microsoft Office Outlook under "Choose a default e-mail program:"

5. Click OK to close all the Windows.

Technorati Tags: MS Office,Outlook

Ravi Sankar: MS Office

Hyperlink Error in Outlook