When clicking on a hyperlink within an email produces this type of error, it usually indicates that there is no default Internet browser (properly) registered in Windows. This can be caused by uninstalling the default browser and not setting another browser as the default when multiple browsers are already installed. This occurs most often after uninstalling Google Chrome while it is still the default browser, and then trying to open hyperlinks in Microsoft Office Outlook (2007, 2003 or 2002) or Excel.
To set Internet Explorer as the default browser, open Internet Explorer > select Internet Options > Programs Tab > check the "Make Default" button in the "Default Web Browser" section. You also may want to check "Tell me if Internet Explorer is not the default browser" box.
To reassign any browser to be the default in Windows:
If multiple browsers are installed, it may help to set a different browser as the default before deleting a browser, apply your changes, and then set your preferred browser as the default again.
If you only have a single Internet browser installed in Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can also unselect all the defaults for the browser by pressing “Choose defaults for this program”, save the changes, and then select them all again.
It is not usually necessary, but you might also need to reset the browser's own defaults.
To reset the default settings in Internet Explorer:
To reset the default settings in Firefox:
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The "operation has been cancelled due to restrictions ..." error also can be caused by a browser upgrade (such as to Internet Explorer 8 or 9) that corrupts or removes the following Windows registry key:
HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open\command
Microsoft provides an automatic fix and manual fix instructions to repair this Windows registry key at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310049 .
If the preceding does not fix the error on your computer, then some file associations and file handlers may not be correctly registered or are conflicting in the Windows registry. To resolve this, you can download and unzip a registry file fix at http://www.msoutlook.info/files/ie-fix-restrictions.zip .
Note 1: this file is from a third-party source - not from CTI or Microsoft - so use at your own discretion. CTI does not accept any responsibility for software you download, or for information provided about settings or software not produced by CTI (see "CTI Disclaimers" in the Related Articles below). To see what’s inside the reg-file before using it, see Note 3 below.
This zip-file contains 3 files:
According to the www.msOutlook.info website, these ".reg" registry files contain the minimal amount of registry entries needed to make Internet links open again in Internet Explorer. All these are the original registry entries from a clean installation of Windows.
These registry files also remove any registry entries that are encountered which could conflict with the original entries from Microsoft. Any registry entries that are removed are not part of a clean installation of Windows.
Note 2: To import this registry file, you must have Administrator rights on the computer.
Note 3: The registry keys are based on a default installation of Windows on the C:\ drive. If Windows is installed on a different drive or if you want to see what’s inside the reg-file before running it, you can extract the zip-file and then open/edit it in Notepad by right-clicking on the reg-file and selecting Edit.
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Related articles and Internet links:
Error message when you click a hyperlink in Outlook (Microsoft's fix)
Google Chrome Help regarding Office Outlook Issues (Google Support Forum)
rev. 03.16.2012