Double click any html shortcut and IE opens the webpage for that shortcut. I deliberately opened Firefox then on Google search found a website that I had never looked at. Opened that in Firefox then saved the url as a shortcut to my desktop. Then closed Firefox. Then double-clicked that shortcut and the same webpage opened but this time automatically in IE browser. IE is my default browser not Firefox. The HTML editor however does not recognise IE as the default browser, opening up Firefox instead by <CTRL>F9

hmm, a few others of us testers had an issue with this too, but reassociating the files fixed it for the most part. Here's what I would suggest to try, tedious I know, but it might work. Might not too, but worth a try.

- Associate your files with Firefox.
- Use ccleaner to clean your system's temp files and browser cache ( http://piriform.com/ccleaner )
- Reboot your system
- Open an HTML file and assure that it opens with Firefox.
- Now do the same exact steps you just did, but set the file to IE not Firefox.

Please let me know if that works, if not you may need to put in a ticket unless Scott has some ideas to try and posts them here. I think a few of us had to go into the registry and remove the setting, but I could be wrong, that may have been for a different issue in testing so don't quote me on it.

Hope that works for you and let us know

Well I am stumped. I suppose the Registry could be switching for unique occasions but I have in all the years never experienced that but strange things happen. I would agree with Jo's suggestion. I will look at my HTML editors structure in my registry. You certainly seemed to prove your point Norman Yes you proved IE as default now your copy of the Editor is doing something mine wont. That is odd. So your copy is choosing Firefox as default overriding the correct default. Curious. Defiantly like to get at the bottom of this.

Did anyone ever find a solution to this? My variation is that the Editor wants to use Opera as the default browser. I have tried all of the variations described by others and can't find the issue. If I uninstall Opera, it finds my normal default - Chrome. As soon as I re-install Opera, it wants to use Opera. This is maddening. Any ideas? Thanks.

How about reinstalling Chrome?

Thanks for getting back to me.

Reinstalled Chrome also. No joy. However, things do get a bit stranger.

Earlier, I had renamed the Opera browser exe file to Xlauncher.exe and that allowed my default browser (chrome) to be the default for the editor.

Then, I set Firefox as my default browser (In Firefox and Windows) and it became my default browser in the editor, which is good.
Then I reset my system default browser to Chrome. However, the editor insists on launching Firefox as my default. According to Windows, Chrome is my default for everything. According to Chrome it is my default browser Firefox is not a default for anything. Also, FWIW, I rem=named the Opera exe back to the original and it is behaving normally. No problem now with Opera.

I looked through the ini files in the editor settings folder and could not find anything relevant. I did a quick wander about in the registry and nothing jumped out at me. Strange.

Still having same issue in 2026!
Version 18, build 890
With Preview window open I click on a link (in the preview window)
and it opens IE, with the message
"Your Browser Is No Longer Supported".
All other applications open my default browser (Firefox).
Any Ideas?

I also use Version 18, build 890 and my default browser is Firefox. When I do the same as Michael in Windows 11 version 25H2 (Build 26200.7462), links do not open in Firefox. I do not get the same message because such links open in Microsoft Edge, which is presumably the way in which Windows now handles attempts to open IE.

The message that Michael gets perhaps relates to the version of Windows on his computer.

Frank

HTML Editor is a Windows application, and it needs an 'engine' to be able to show previews. The makers of HTML Editor don't know how many, or which, browser(s) a user has installed, so the safest bet is to let it use the engine of the one browser that every Windows user has. In the old days, that was Internet Explorer (IE). And under Tools > Preferences > Browser testing, you could choose which version of IE you wanted it to use. The last version of IE - before it became unsupported - was IE 11. And with Windows 10 there was a change: the browser Edge was to replace IE. This now happens automatically in Windows 11. The setting in the HTML Editor has to be 'Internal Preview Uses Internet Explorer 11', but what actually opens is Edge. As Frank says, it depends on your Windows version, and probably also on your settings in Tools > Preferences > Browser testing