I ran into this issue trying to open a link in Microsoft Word 2010 on Windows 10, and found that the issue was that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell
contained Edit
and Print
keys but no open
key as expected.
The manual fix
From the Start Menu, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell
by pasting it in the navigation bar and pressing Enter.
Once inside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell
, right-click to create a new key and name it open
.
Right-click again inside open
and create the command
key. Once created, double-click its Default string and give it a value of "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" %1
(replace path to Firefox with that of your preferred browser).
Exit Registry Editor and restart Microsoft Word, or whichever other program you were having issues opening links in.
The registry file
If you're positive that you're missing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open
but you'd prefer not to edit the registry yourself, copy-and-paste the following into a file ending with .reg
and double-click to merge it into your Registry:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe\" %1"
N.B. It is highly-recommended to create a restore point or at least a backup of the registry before making any changes to the Registry.