If my Outlook Express is my default email program, why in the Internet Options "programs" tab it is grayed out

Question

My default browser is Yahoo.

Answer 1

Assuming your an Administrator user, I think it's one of three things:

1. A symptom of a "Browser Hijack". Scan your computer with software like Lavasoft Ad-Aware with up-to-date definitions.

2. Some other email program is being a little too agressive in making sure it provides you with that "maintenance free" "always reliable" experience.

3. Just one of those things. You can do a repair install of Internet Explorer (which is the code behind most of what you see in "Internet Options" whether you're actually using IE or not) by going to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and selecting Internet Explorer, then choosing the "Repair" option. On your system, it may or may not look like this:
http://www.aceexplorer.com/repairie.htm

Of course, you say that Outlook is your default email program. If it's actually working correctly as your default email program - it opens up outlook when you click on an email link - then I would stop after looking at number one and leave well enough alone.