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I have this HUGELY irritating problem on Windows 7 (x64). Whenever I click on ANY link (that exists on a Word document, Excel or Outlook), I get an alert box with the message:

This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

I have been scouring my settings and the Internet for a solution, but to no avail. What is the reason for this problem? It even happens when I click anchors in word document. That is, I can't even click on an entry in a Table of Contents to go to the appropriate page - I get this same error then.

Is this a Windows 7 thing? Is there any way to turn this off?

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  • If you find a way to recreate this message at will, let us know. It's so horrible it's great! A zen Buddhist would say this message has "Microsoft-nature". May 13, 2010 at 14:31

7 Answers 7

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it was caused by uninstalling Chrome. This solved my problem:

if you received this error after uninstalling any application that takes over the HTML open command (including, but not limited to, Chrome & Firefox browsers) you may also need to change the HTM/HTML association in the registry.

  1. Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
  2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.html
  3. Right click the value for the .html key and select Modify…
  4. Change the value from “ChromeHTML” to “htmlfile” (or from FireFoxHTML to htmlfile)

Repeat these steps for htm and .shtml keys if they exist. You may also want to check the xhtml and xhtm keys.

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  • What should I do if there's no ".html" key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.html? May 26, 2018 at 4:01
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Did you recently uninstall Google Chrome?

I use Windows 7 64-bit and can replicate this exact behavior. After uninstalling Chrome all links in Office applications (OneNote, Excel, Outlook etc.) do not work anymore. After reinstalling it ... no problem. You do not have to use Chrome ... my standard browser is Safari.

Don't forget to Log off / on. Technically it has something todo with an all upper case entry in the registry. However I did not figure out yet all the places or the exact procedure required to fix this without having Chrome installed. Also: I feel it should be the task of the Google folks to write and distribute that fix.

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  • 1
    We had his exact problem. Installing Chrome again fixed it. May 14, 2010 at 2:59
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This fix worked for me:

  1. Uninstall all web browsers except Internet Explorer
  2. Clean up the system, including the registry, with CCleaner
  3. Run MicrosoftEasyFix50388.msi
  4. Reset Internet Explorer settings back to their default: Internet Explorer -> cog wheel icon -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> Restore advanced settings and 'Reset...' button -> Tick 'Delete personal settings' and press 'Reset'
  5. Control panel -> Default programs -> Set your default programs -> Click 'Internet Explorer' on left and 'Set this program as default'
  6. Restart system
  7. Verify that hyperlinks are now opening in Internet Explorer
  8. Install preferred web browser (in my case, Firefox)
  9. Return to Control panel -> Default programs -> Set your default programs -> Click 'Firefox' on left and 'Set this program as default'
  10. Hyperlinks should now be opening in Firefox instead of Internet Explorer
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  • For some reason that's beyond me that hotfix is no longer linked to on the Microsoft page and so now the contents of it are unknown. Jul 28, 2021 at 14:26
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This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer..

I had the same problem with windows 7 and office 2007, and then surfing the web, I found a fix fro Microsoft and download it, after installing the problem was resolve it.

Here is a link with the instructions and the file to download:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310049#fixit4me

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This was driving me crazy until I found Alan's quick fix here.

I found that re-installing Google Chrome or FireFox and setting it as the default, the hyperlinks worked. I then went to Internet Explorer and set it as the default browser. I again checked the hyperlinks, and again they worked. I then un-installed Google Chrome and have had no problems since. Hopefully this will work for others as well.

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This can happen if a program has changed the default opening program for html files. I ran into it when I set Notepad++ to open .html by default.

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  • This is what caused mine to break. I did the same thing you did when I I installed Notepad++. The fix was to follow the Registry fix suggested by @Paul - except that I changed it from "Notepad++_file" to "ChromeHTML". Unlike in Paul's case, it worked with "ChromeHTML". Also: Notepad++ added a new key under .htm and .html called "Notepad++_backup" which contained the old value - that's how I knew to change it to "ChromeHTML".
    – RobertB
    Apr 21, 2015 at 19:56
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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.

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