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Make
Communicator Your Default Browser for Windows 95 or NT
Setting
Netscape Communicator to Be Your Default Web Browser
These instructions are
for selecting Communicator as your default browser under
Windows 95 and Windows NT. If you use an operating system
other than Windows 95 or Windows NT, you'll need to
follow different instructions.
The first step
in the process is to set Internet Explorer so it will not
ask whether it should be your default browser:
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Open up
Internet Explorer.
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Under the
View menu, click Internet Options (in 4.x
browsers) or Options (in 3.x browsers).
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In the
dialog box that appears, click the tab labeled
Programs.
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At the
bottom of the dialog box you will see a checkbox
that reads "Internet Explorer should check
to see whether it is the default browser."
Make sure this box is not checked.
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Click OK
and close Internet Explorer.
Next, set
Communicator to be your default browser:
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Run
Communicator by choosing Programs and then
Netscape Communicator from the Start menu or by
double-clicking the Communicator icon on your
desktop.
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You should
be presented with a dialog box that reads
"Navigator is no longer registered to handle
Internet Shortcuts. Would you like to register
Navigator as your default browser?" Click
Yes.
If you do not
encounter this dialog box when starting Communicator, you
will need to reset Communicator to bring this dialog box
up the next time you launch Netscape:
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Exit
Communicator. Important: Make sure Communicator
and all of its components are NOT running.
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Go to the
Netscape directory on your hard drive. Open up
your hard drive (usually labeled C: drive). Next,
find and open the folder labeled Program Files.
Inside you will find a folder labeled Netscape.
Important: This is the default location for
Netscape; the location on your particular
computer may differ. If necessary, you can use
the Find feature in the Start menu to locate
it.
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Inside the
Netscape folder, open up the folder labeled
Users.
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Inside
Users, open the folder with the same name as your
Communicator profile. There may be only one
folder, but if there is more than one, choose the
one that coincides with the profile you select
when you launch Netscape.
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Back up the
file called prefs.js somewhere on your hard
drive. Note: This file may simply be labeled
prefs.
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Open this
file by using a text editor. By default the
pref.js file is associated with Netscape. In
order to open this file with a text editor,
select the file with a right click and choose the
menu item called Open With. In the window that
appears, select Notepad or Notepad.exe from the
list. Next, make sure that the "Always use
this program to open this type of file"
checkbox at the bottom of the window is
unchecked. Then, click the OK button to close
this window and open the pref.js file.
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In this
file, you will see a line (you may have to scroll
down a bit) that reads:
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user_pref("browser.wfe.ignore_def_check",
true);
Leaving
the line otherwise untouched, change the word
true to the word false. Note: Disregard the text
at the top of this page that reads "This is
a generated file! Do not edit." If you do
not see the above line in your prefs file,
Communicator may already be configured as your
default browser.
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Save the
file (choose Save from the File menu) and close
the window.
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Next time
you launch Communicator, you will be presented
with a dialog box asking if you would like
Netscape to be set as your default browser.
Choose Yes.
If upon
launching Communicator, you still do not get the dialog
box asking if you would like to set Communicator as your
default browser, you may have incorrectly edited your
prefs.js file. Locate the saved prefs.js file that you
made (in step 5) and replace the newly altered file with
this saved file. You can do this by repeating steps 2, 3,
and 4 (to open up your profile folder) and replacing the
prefs.js file in your profile folder with the one you
previously saved. From here, go back to step 5 and repeat
the rest of the process, making sure to follow the
instructions in step 7 very carefully.
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