Hyperlinks in Microsoft Office applications always launches Internet Explorer?

Symptom

When you click a hyperlink in a Microsoft Office application, pointing to a URL or a local image file, the URL / image file is opened in Internet Explorer, rather than using the default browser / image viewer.

Solution

To force Microsoft Office applications to use the file association settings, rather than launching Internet Explorer, follow these steps:

Type regedit in Start, Run dialog.

Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Office \ 9.0 \ Common \ Internet

On the Edit menu, point to New, and click DWORD Value.

Enter ForceShellExecute as the value name.

On the Edit menu, click Modify. In the Value data box, type 1.

Close Registry Editor

Now, the hyperlinks in Office applications (pointing to a local file or an URL), will honor the file association settings, rather than launching Internet Explorer.

NOTE : This has been tested under Microsoft Office 2000 and Office 2003.