Outlook Hyperlinks Fail to Work

Why Do Hyperlinks Stop Working in Outlook?

Installing Windows updates
Installing or uninstalling browsers
Installing browser add-ons
Installing various Outlook plugins or addins
Using aggressive Windows Registry cleaners

Fix 1: Start by Resetting Your Default Browser

To make IE your default browser,
1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools from the menu
3. Select Internet Options.
4. Click the Programs tab
5. Click the button labeled Make Default.
6. Click OK.
7. Test a hyperlink in Outlook to see if the web page opens in Internet Explorer.

Fix 2: Reregister Windows DLL Files

Even after resetting your default browser you still can’t open hyperlink in Outlook, it could be one or more registry keys is damaged. The solution is to reregister some of your DLL files. There are 6 files to register based on your system. Some configurations use shdocvw.dll and others use shdoc401.dll.

To reregister the DLL files,
1. Close all open programs.
2. Click the Start button.
3. Select the Run… command. Vista users can type “run” in the Start Search textbox.
4. In the Open: textbox, type regsvr32 followed by a space and the file name.

In the screen snap below, I’ve used the first file Shdocvw.dll.

5. Click the OK button. You should see a message showing the process succeeded.

6. Click OK to dismiss the message.
7. Repeat the procedure for the other DLL files.

regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll (Some system use Shdoc401.dll instead)
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll
regsvr32 Urlmon.dll
regsvr32 Shell32.dll

8. As before, test to see if your Outlook hyperlink problem has been resolved.

Fix 3: Reset the (NONE) URL File Types

If you’ve gotten to this part your Outlook hyperlinks are still broken. Your file associations are broke and you need to check URL mappings.

To set URL file associations,
1. Open My Computer.
2. From the Tools menu, select Folder Options…
3. Click the File Types tab. A long list of Extensions and File Types appears.
4. Scroll down till you get to (NONE) URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol
5. Click the Advanced button.

6. Select the bold open item. *
7. Click Edit…
8. Click the Browse… button
9. Navigate to where Internet Explorer is located. (For most PC, it’s at C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe)
10. Add a space and %1 to the end of the file name. (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" %1)
11. Click OK.
12. Click Close.
13. Repeat the process for (NONE) URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy.
* If open doesn’t show, click New and type open in the action box.

Back to Firefox (Optional)

Once you get the Outlook links to open in Internet Explorer, you can change your default browser to Firefox. This should roll down to Outlook so any embedded hyperlinks will open in the correct browser.

To set Firefox 3 as your default browser,
1. Open Firefox
2. Select Tools from the menu
3. Select Options…
4. Click Advanced
5. Click the Check Now button
6. Click Yes if the default browser is not set.
7. Click OK.
Note: For Firefox 2.x users, click Main instead of Advanced.