Adobe AIR & Windows Vista

February 25, 2008

I’ve been enjoying some of the Adobe AIR apps during it’s development over the past year. Among several Twitter clients that have popped up in the last few months running on AIR, I’ve really enjoyed Twhirl.

Now, if you’re a Twitter user, you know that its a great way to share links and more. Works great – except when you’ve set a browser other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the default web browser. I happen to be partial to Firefox, and use it constantly, so when an Adobe AIR based app launches IE when I click a shared link – it’s upsetting.

Luckily in the final version there is an Adobe KB article with instructions on how to fix that problem. Personally I think their reason that it doesn’t work in the first place is lame:

Windows Vista does not make the required additional registry entries correctly when a browser other than Internet Explorer is set as the default browser. When an attempt to load the URL is made, Adobe AIR uses Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to connect to an open instance of the browser registered for URL requests. If that fails, Adobe AIR falls back on Shell Execution.

Other non-Microsoft (and Microsoft!) applications have consistently and successfully launched the correct browser for me. Why not AIR?

At any rate, here is how to fix the problem.

Launch “Default Programs” off the Vista Start Menu
Click on “Set Program Access And Computer Defaults” in the Default Programs dialog
Select “Custom” from the list and choose your preferred browser from the list of recognized installed browsers.
Click OK and your done.

Next time you launch your AIR app, you will be able to follow links and have them load in your preferred browser.

Technorati Tags: Adobe AIR, Firefox, Twitter, Twhirl, Windows Vista

Conversation Tags: firefox, twhirl, twitter, vista

Categories: software, windows

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Shankar Madheswaran

https connection using sendandload method simply fails in vista machine, whereas the same works with http. I also tried some other air applications like ebay and twhirl. The login simply fails.

Is there anyone else facing this issue? Any help is much appreciated.

scania70

On firing up my pc it stated that my pc required Adobe-Air, after downloading , when after start up up comes a window saying that this installation of this application is damaged . Try re installing , but after reinstalling this window still appears. Can you help me on a way to stop this and cure it please. Thanks Mr Brian Rouse.

Rick Mahn

@scania70 This sounds like an Adobe Air issue, so I'd head on over to http://support.adobe.com and see if they can help answer that question. They would be best suited to help fix that particular problem.

Eric

Thank you, I was trying to download adobe air for tweetdeck using firefox. I was getting frustrated and found your article. I downloaded with ie8 with no problem.

Anna Richard

Hey this worked. I've been having trouble with my laptop since day one. Thank you for saving me the frustration.

<abbr>Anna Richard´s last blog post..Learned</abbr>

Brian Horn

You saved me!!! I was about ready to throw my laptop though the wall.

Thank you so much.

Marc Brooks

Fixed it... change the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command (default) to C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\Chrome.exe (for Vista/Server 2008)

Rick Mahn

Hi all, glad this fix has worked for you. I've seen a couple variations where this fix got messed up after a FireFox upgrade. Setting things back to defaults and then re-performing the fix worked. I hope this is addressed in future AIR updates, or at least that this workaround continues to do the trick for us.

Cheers,
Rick

Scott Lenger

Thanks, worked for me as well.

Anthony Stevens

Rick, thanks so much for this! This worked amazingly well. You've removed one of the last Twhirl annoyances for me.

Scott Lenger

Thanks, very helpful.

Scottish

Thanks very much for digging up this solution; this has been driving me nuts!

Rick Mahn

Luke, glad it helped out! Something that should have been built into the AIR install itself, but at least we have the ability to make it work the way we want. :)

Luke Armour

This was perfect for me and I've been able to share it with other twitterati who have been seeking looking to solve the same problem. Great tip.

Caio Iglesias

I'm back again for one last warning ;)
Far too many registry deletions!!!
Don't delete the last one: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.lnk, it causes windows shortcuts to do nothing. The fix is here: http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/Fil...
Just download the fix for the .lnk filetype association and "run" it.
Done. Thanks once again!

Rick Mahn

Caio, That's good news! Sorry I had no other ideas, glad you found it in the end. Also, thank you for sharing what worked for other folks to find.

Regards,
Rick

Caio Iglesias

Got it!
Start + R
regedit
and deleted:
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.htm
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.html
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.lnk
After restart they were recreated properly and calling for firefox.

I found a tip for this @ google desktops' google group.

Thanks Rick!

Rick Mahn

Caio, When I had the apps open it reverted to "use current" but when I closed them all and changed the settings it stuck. Maybe I just got lucky with it. Might be something to dig deeper on Adobe's knowledge base, or to check with Twhirl as well. Wish I had another idea to try, but it's about all the settings that there are for this.

Rick

Caio Iglesias

Hey Rick, thanks for the reply. I tried what you suggested but it's still not working. Does it switch back to “Use my current…” when you change it and then open “Set Program Access And Computer Defaults” again or the option you chose is still selected? Thanks!

Rick Mahn

Caio,
I have seen that! Just the other day when I updated AlertThingy to a new version. What ended up working was to close my browsers and all AIR apps, then go change the default browser settings detailed above. Then when I launched Twhirl it would again open my links in the correct browser.

Hope this helps,
Rick

Caio Iglesias

Man... That "Set Program Access And Computer Defaults” won't save my options! It just switches everything back to "Use my current..." the next time I go into it. I am logged in as an admin. Is anyone else experiencing something like this?

Rick Mahn

Ryan - I have to ask: you do have another browser besides IE installed...?

Lawrence, of course it is! I'm just surprised at Adobe. Frustrating experience on that one.

Lawrence

To be totally honest, that KB article is just an excuse. It's perfectly easy to, if it's a vista user, check the correct registry adjustments, or even use the AIR runtime to do it for the user.