Email Links

[twalton1203]

Can anyone tell me why the links in emails do not work? Is there a something I can do to fix this?

Thanks!

[scythe944]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You're leaving out a lot of information here, it's difficult for us to figure out the problem if we don't know what email service you're using (hotmail, gmail, aol, outlook express, windows live, Outlook, etc), what Operating system you have, or when your links stopped working and what has changed since.

However, this happened to a few people that I know and it was usually caused by the default browser being removed.  Windows didn't know what browser to open links in after that.

If you're on a windows machine, try going to control panel, open Internet Options, click on the "Programs" tab, and click the button that says, "Make Default", then click ok and exit out.

When you click a link, it should open Internet Explorer and display the link.  If not, you can try holding the CTRL key down when you click the link (but that all depends on what you're viewing your emails with, which you didn't specify).

[twalton1203]

Sorry- I am new and just wasn't thinking. I am using Windows Live Mail, but it is my gmail account that is coming into it.  It just started when I downloaded avast.  I can click on a link, but I get the big red X and the error "Application not found" The  link is listed in the box as well.  Even the link to activate this forum didn't work.

I checked to see if it was the default and it is- IE 7 is what I am running. Holding down the CTRL key does not help at all...

Thanks!

[bob3160]

If you right click on the link does it ask you what program to use
If it does, select your default browser and check the box to do that all the time.

[scythe944]

Sorry- I am new and just wasn't thinking. I am using Windows Live Mail, but it is my gmail account that is coming into it.  It just started when I downloaded avast.  I can click on a link, but I get the big red X and the error "Application not found" The  link is listed in the box as well.  Even the link to activate this forum didn't work.

I checked to see if it was the default and it is- IE 7 is what I am running. Holding down the CTRL key does not help at all...

Thanks!

That's ok.  The CTRL + click only works in Microsoft Outlook as far as I know, so you don't have to worry about that if you're using Live Mail.

Did you try setting a browser as your default?  If not, do that.  When you open a browser (be it firefox, IE, chrome, opera, whatever) it should ask if you want to make it your default.  If it doesn't ask you, then just follow the steps that I provided in my first post.

If you have windows 7 or Vista, you can use the "Default Programs" applet in the control panel to set a default browser as well.

I've never heard of avast not allowing links to open from an email yet, so I doubt this has anything to do with avast.

[twalton1203]

Thanks for all the help.  Turns out it was as simple as making IE my default browser.  I thought it was, but evidently not.  I fixed that and solved the problem!!


Thanks again!
T

[scythe944]

Thanks for all the help.  Turns out it was as simple as making IE my default browser.  I thought it was, but evidently not.  I fixed that and solved the problem!!


Thanks again!
T

No problem...  My dad did the same thing to his computer (had Avant browser set as default, removed it, and never set a default browser afterwards) and he blamed it not working on me.

Come back if you have any other questions!