This is part rant part cry for help…….

I use Firefox as my main browser. I use Thunderbird for email. I recently removed Outlook Express from my computer because I do not use it and do not intend to. The only reason I still tolerate IE on my system is to check that any sites I create are viewable in IE. I have no intention of changing this.

While I had my computer up at Uni I was required to access any external sites through the Uni proxy - I also got very good at setting this up for other people who couldn’t figure out how to change this very basic setting.
Naturally as soon as I got my computer back home this was no longer required and I removed the setting.

Given my tendancy to rant about people not keeping their machines secure and updated, I felt that not installing Windows Service Pack II would be somewhat hypocritical - So I installed it.

And now:

  • IE is permanently set as my default browser - despite me telling it not to be in multiple places.
  • Outlook Express is back on my Start Menu - but not in my Add/Remove Programs, so I can’t get rid of it. This also applies to IE.(Note: Yes, it is in the the Add/Remove Windows Components section but that only takes it off the Start Menu - nothing more)
  • My proxy settings have been reinstated for IE somewhere where I can’t find them - and seeing as I’ve now graduated from Bath my login has expired and I can’t access anything but an error page

The reason this is annoying is that if I get an email with a link that I want to follow - for instance any of the dozen news mails I get every day, or any comment-spam I want to blacklist, or just some friendly person sending me a link - I cannot just click on the link as this opens IE, asks for my proxy username and password and then gives me an error page. So I’m stuck having to copy-paste links manually.

And it’s really annoying.

Any ideas anyone?