You might have the strike with an error stating that “This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.” While trying to open a hyperlink in Outlook email. If you are thinking how to activate that deactivated link, then you are at right place.
First, ensure that you are opening Outlook email through an administrator account. Even then you are failing to open link in your email, then it must be a problem with the browser. Therefore, try out the following fixes.
Fix #1: Reassign a Default Browser in Windows
In case, there is no default browser registered to Windows, then you might encounter this error. So you have to reassign browser to Windows. For that, do as follows-
In Windows 10 – Navigate to Start-> Settings-> System-> Default Apps
In Windows 8 – Start-> type: Default Programs / Go to Control Panel-> Programs-> Default Programs
In Windows Vista and Windows 7- Start-> Default Programs
In Windows XP– Go to Control Panel-> Set Program Access and Defaults
If you have multiple browsers, then set one as a default browser. Then, try to open link present in your email.
Fix #2: Reset the Browser
You have default browser but still, error emerges while opening a link, then reset your default browser.
To reset Google Chrome-
- Open Google Chrome
- Go to browser settings and scroll down
- Click on Advanced and again scroll down until you find Reset option
- Hit Reset button
For Resetting Firefox-
Open Run window and type firefox -safe-mode firefox-safe-mode. When a dialog box appears, select the option “Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults” and hit “Make Changes and Restart”.
After resetting the respective browser, open an email and click the link to access it.
Fix #3: Repair Registry
If still the problem persists, then, the issue must be deeper. There is a chance that file associations and handlers incorrectly registered in the registry due to which this error is occurring. Hence, for resolving this error import and export registry keys from another computer-
Export Registry Keys: –
- Open Run window in which you are not getting the error
- Then, type regedit and click OK
- Find and press the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open\command
- Go to Registry menu and choose Export option
- Select the location to save exported file name and specify a name for it
- Click on Save button
- Now, exit from Registry Editor
Import the Registry Key
- Copy exported registry key on the computer which is displaying error
- Double click on it
- You will get following error message
- Adding information can unintentionally change or delete values and cause components to stop working correctly. If you do not trust the source of this information in C: Users\<yourlogon>Desktop\regkey.reg, do not add it to the registry. (In Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8)
- Are you sure you want to add the information to drive: location file was copied to\file name.reg to the registry? (In Windows 7)
- 4. Hit Yes followed by Ok
Validate that the String (Default) value of the “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \.html” key is “htmlfile”
- Go to Run window and type regedit to open Registry Editor
- Find the following registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \.html
- Ensure that it is HTML file. If not alter it, to do so-
- Right-click on the file and choose Modify
- In the value data box, type HTML file and hit Ok
- Now exit from Registry Editor
Now, go to Outlook email and click on the link.
Additional Info- There are many other problems which you may face in Outlook, besides link do not open in mails error. In most of the cases, issues are related to Outlook PST file. In any case, if you come across such issues, then try out Remo PST Repair tool. It will help you in solving PST file doesn’t show emails, PST is corrupted, and in many other issues.