Take a look at these two dialogs, and tell me what you see as a difference…

File Type file association Dialog:

Protocol Dialog:

Found the difference? (Apart from the file type)

No? How about the lack of a “Browse” button from the HTTP protocol, and the lack of any alternatives. (I have Firefox installed)

Now, these are just two I picked at semi-random…. actually, not really.

See, I like to use Firefox as my primary browser.
When I click links in IM conversations, IRC, and other applications - I like them to appear in my default browser.
Unfortunately, Windows Vista doesn’t seem to let Firefox be the default browser.

Every time I start Firefox, I get this prompt:

I choose yes, every time - but Vista apparently ignores this.

Unfortunately, Windows Vista (Both build 5600, and according to Paul - Build 5728 too) won’t let me change this using the Default Programs utility either.

So, if I click on a URL in an Office document, or IRC, or whatever — it opens in Internet Explorer.
Not only that, but the same goes for HTTPS, and FTP. Apparently this does NOT occur for Mail, but I can’t confirm that (yet).

Can anyone else confirm this behavior isn’t isolated to two PCs?
Have you found a work around?

Is this an intended behavior? (i.e: Lock out 3rd party software from some protocols)
Is there some sort of additional API that programs need to implement, to associate with certain protocols?

Credit goes to Paul for clueing me into this puzzling behavior.

Updated: Looks like I’m not the only one to find this out… CyberNet News had this last month.

Solution? Run Firefox as Administrator, and then it’ll let Firefox change the association.

The funny thing is, when you press “Change” on these protocols, it still doesn’t show Firefox.

Lets all submit a bug report, ’cause this isn’t fun. They could at least give us a UAC prompt, like everything else does.

Oh, and Paul, two words: neer neer (But you got better looking screenshots than me… dangit… I need to crop, instead of just taking a full screenshot.)