After uninstalling Firefox, I noticed that links no longer worked within Outlook 2007. Clicking on any link produced an error which stated, “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.” As with any error, I turned to Google. I was able to find numerous blogs and pages which simply restated Microsoft’s solution of respecifying IE as the default browser. For every time somebody posted that procedure, there were dozens of, “Thanks, that worked.” replies, so I figured that it would work for me as well.

I followed the instructions in Microsoft’s help document Q310049 while logged in as myself (user permissions), but my links still produced the warning. I then tried making the same changes while logged in as administrator, but I still had no luck. Eventually, I solved the problem by making a SWAG: All I had to do was temporarily add my normal account to the administrators group, follow Microsoft’s instructions from Q310049, and then remove myself from administrators.

I’m not sure which registry keys are directly manipulated by the steps outlined in Q310049. If you are indeed required to have administrative privelages to edit them, then it’s scary to think of how many people run as admin 100% of the time. (Judging by the volume of “Thanks, that worked” responses I encountered when reading blogs which rehashed Q310049).

So far, I don’t have much good or bad to say about it. I guess it is what it is – just the next version of Office. I don’t mind the ribbon and I imagine it’ll be just fine once I get used to it.

I do have one issue with it, which is more of a peeve than anything that truly affects productivity. The color schemes are absolutely useless. It’s not that I feel left out because want a green scheme, an orange scheme, or a purple scheme (for the uninitiated, you’re given the choice of blue, silver, or black). My issue is this: what good is configuring your OS appearance preferences if applications don’t observe them? These “skinned” applications all seem like they were created by someone who just didn’t have anything better to do. Unfortunately, almost all applications seem to be going that way. Norton has been doing it for years with their consumer stuff (luckily their corporate stuff still uses normal window appearances). Winamp has never used regular Windows forms. Roxio has recently started using the skinned appearance, and even AutoCAD now restricts users to either a “light” or a “dark” color scheme. To me, applications like this can just be distracting. I much prefer when apps have a consistent look and feel. Wasn’t that one of the original selling points of Windows in the first place?