IRC Links in Internet Explorer

[Iced^]

When i click an IRC link in IE i receive this message "Windows cannot find irc://irc.whatever.org. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search." then after i click ok i receive this message "Internet Explorer cannot open this helper application irc://irc.whatever.org. The protocol specified in the address is not valid. Make sure the address is correct, and then try again." mIRC the IRC application i'm using does start itself but doesn't work as it has done in the past where by it shows 3 connection options and once you've chosen one you auto-connect and join the room named in the link. I've applied some registry tweaks to my system and although i'm sure none of them have caused it i've listed them below just incase.

;Disable Automatic Restart in the event of a BSOD

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl]

"AutoReboot"=dword:00000000

;Disable the Desktop Cleanup Wizard

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\CleanupWiz]

"NoRun"=dword:00000001

;Disables Error Reporting, but notifies when errors occur

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting]

"DoReport"=dword:00000000

;Disable Messenger Service (to block spam. Does not affect MSN or Windows Messenger)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Messenger]

"Start"=dword:00000004

;Disable Remote Registry Service

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RemoteRegistry]

"Start"=dword:00000004

;Disable Welcome Screen and uses Classic Logon

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"LogonType"=dword:00000000

;Removes Language Bar

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{540D8A8B-1C3F-4E32-8132-530F6A502090}]

@="Language bar"

"MenuTextPUI"="@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\msutb.dll,-325"

;Max your Internet Explorer's simultaneous downloads to 10 (default was 2)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000000a

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a

;Change MenuShowDelay (Start Menu load speed)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

"MenuShowDelay"="0"

;Remove Shared Documents from My Computer

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}]

;Remove Shortcut Arrows

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile]

"IsShortcut"=-

;Allow renaming of Recycle Bin

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]

"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

"CallForAttributes"=dword:00000000

;Disables Windows Tour bubble popup

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Tour]

"RunCount"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Tour]

"RunCount"=dword:00000000

;NoRecentDocsmenu removes the recent documents from the start menu.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoRecentDocsMenu"=dword:00000001

;Adds "Empty Recycling Bin" to the right click menu

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}]

@="Empty Recycle Bin"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Empty Recycle Bin]

@="{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Empty Recycle Bin]

@="{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Empty Recycle Bin]

@="{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Empty Recycle Bin]

@="{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

;Disables Indexing Service

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\cisvc]

"Start"=dword:00000004

;Increases Boot Speed for networked machines

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]

"SynchronousMachineGroupPolicy"=dword:00000000

"SynchronousUserGroupPolicy"=dword:00000000

;Increase IE/Network browsing speeds

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}]

;Deletes Temporary Internet Files On IE close.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache]

"Persistent"=dword:00000000

;Prevents delay opening My Computer/Explorer

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stisvc]

"Start"=dword:00000004

;Sets Control Panel to classic view

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"ForceClassicControlPanel"=dword:00000001

;Increased Memory Utilization

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]

"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000000

"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001

"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000000

"NonPagedPoolQuota"=dword:00000000

"NonPagedPoolSize"=dword:00000000

"PagedPoolQuota"=dword:00000000

"PagedPoolSize"=dword:00000000

"SecondLevelDataCache"=dword:00000000

"SystemPages"=dword:00183000

"PagingFiles"=hex(7):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,70,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,66,00,69,00,6c,\

00,65,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,20,00,37,00,36,00,38,00,20,00,31,00,35,00,\

33,00,36,00,00,00,00,00

"PhysicalAddressExtension"=dword:00000000

"SessionViewSize"=dword:00000030

"SessionPoolSize"=dword:00000004

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]

"VideoInitTime"=dword:00000474

"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000003

"AppLaunchMaxNumPages"=dword:00000fa0

"AppLaunchMaxNumSections"=dword:000000aa

"AppLaunchTimerPeriod"=hex:80,69,67,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff

"BootMaxNumPages"=dword:0001f400

"BootMaxNumSections"=dword:00000ff0

"BootTimerPeriod"=hex:00,f2,d8,f8,ff,ff,ff,ff

"MaxNumActiveTraces"=dword:00000008

"MaxNumSavedTraces"=dword:00000008

"RootDirPath"="Prefetch"

"HostingAppList"="DLLHOST.EXE,MMC.EXE,RUNDLL32.EXE"

;Enables Keys F13, F14 & F15 on Apple Pro Keyboards

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]

"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,37,e0,64,00,\

46,00,65,00,46,e0,66,00,00,00,00,00

;Fixes renaming issue with AVI files

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32]

;Put my computer my network places my documents on the desktop

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]

"{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000

"{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}"=dword:00000000

"{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000

;Disable Automatic Updates

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv]

"Start"=dword:00000004

;Disable System Restore Service

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\srservice]

"Start"=dword:00000004

;Right-Click Move-To

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To]

@="{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

;Disable Autorun

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom]

"AutoRun"=dword:00000000

;Speed up shutdown

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

"HungAppTimeout"="5000"

"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="4000"

;Broadband Tweak for Windows XP

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize="256960"

TcpWindowSize="256960"

Tcp1323Opts="1"

DefaultTTL="64"

EnablePMTUDiscovery="1"

EnablePMTUBHDetect="0"

SackOpts="1"

TcpMaxDupAcks="2"

MTU="1500"

HKEY_USERS.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:00000020

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:00000020

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:00000020

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:00000020

;Disables the sound icon

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\SysTray]

"Services"=dword:0000001b

;Disable links folder in explorer favorites so it never appears again.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]

"LinksFolderName"=""

"Locked"=dword:00000001

;This allows boot files to be placed optimally on the hard-drive for faster boots.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction]

"Enable"="Y"

;disable the "search-dog"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState]

"Use Search Asst"="no"

;Sorts My Computer Above My Documents

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}]

"SortOrderIndex"=dword:00000054

Thanks in advance.

[Corvette]

Sorry but entering an IRC network into IE (or any other browser) will not do anything but slap you in the face with an error

[b0r3d]

Thats not true.

If you open your browser and type: irc://irc.gamesnet.net and hit enter, it should open mirc for you and promt you to join that sever.

Iced: I suggest you check that the server you are trying to connect to actually exists. Open up mirc, and join it manually. If that works, i'd try re-install mirc again.

[Corvette]

But when I do it and even if I have a IRC Client (XirCON)

[b0r3d]

Then you've broken something, cuase it works perfectly well for me, and it was working for iced until he broke something

[sTe]

Not sure, but just thinking ... doesnt this all depend on DDE ... Im not sure if you can disable it, but I know on another IRC program I use sometimes the DDE stops working properly and requires a reboot. Dunno if this helps any?

sTe

[Iced^]

That definitely helps, i know mIRC very well and the only option i wasn't familiar with and never got round to finding out what its purpose was is DDE so after installation for the first time since using mIRC i decided to disable it and see what the affects would be, now i know Thanks a lot m8.

[Thanatos]

This is how I have my IRC protocol 'file type?' set up in folder options, if you create a new file type and set it up like this, It should work. Failing that, reinstall mirc