Opera 9.5 doesn’t seem to have an option in the app itself to set itself as the default browser. I searched the web plenty and found some threads on ppcgeeks.com that pointed to the following registry key as the one that you need to set to change the default browser:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\DEFBROWSER\0
Value = Opera Browser
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\DEFBROWSER\1
Value = “\Windows\OperaL.exe”

While those did the trick for some scenarios, there were still some that continued to launch Internet Explorer instead of Opera. For example, when launching the browser from HTC’s TouchFlo app, Opera launched. However, whenever I clicked on a link from within an email or within an app like TouchTwit, Internet Explorer was launched. Further searching led me to find a few other keys in the registry that proved to work (at least for me). I had to also set the following key as follows:

HKCR\htmlfile\Shell\Open\Command\Default
Value = “\Windows\OperaL.exe” “%1″

There are others (HKCR\hhtp and HKCR\https) that should also be set this way but there already were in my case so the only one I had to update with the htmlfile one.

Hope this helps anyone who finds themselves in the same boat.

HKey_LocalMachine\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs\home

If you don’t have one already, download one of the many Windows Mobile registry editors (I use the one by PHM).

Since I installed Vista on this box I’ve been running into a crash when closing Internet Explorer 7. Right after closing IE I’d get a dialog saying “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.” It would happen almost 75% of the time I’d guess and it was a bit annoying as it would re-launch IE every time if I didn’t cancel it in time. I tried all kinds of things to see if I could narrow it down but never got a clue. I also couldn’t repro it on demand so I never got around to trying to debug to get further clues but never got around to it. It would happen very often through through real use but I just couldn’t figure out the specific thing that triggered the failure.

Today, I got a Vista dialog that popped up soon after I rebooted the machine. It said it had a known solution for a problem I have been encountering and to click the link to get the problem fixed. It led me to this page on Microsoft.com and I read through the KB article and immediately got impressed as this was really talking about the exact problem I’ve been having. This is one of the first times I’ve seen this dialog where it really is actually helping me. A really great experience overall and I’m sure I’ll be seeing plenty more of these dialogs over time and I’ll pay attention to every single one. It’s a vastly better experience than just blindly installing updates and hoping things get fixed only to find most of the time that they didn’t.

The repro for the crash turned out to be incredibly simple. Here’s how the KB article sums it up:

Consider the following scenario. On a Windows Vista-based computer that contains the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader, you use Windows Internet Explorer 7 to visit a Web site. You click a combo box control, such as a drop-down list or a text box that has an attached list. You exit Windows Internet Explorer 7.

All I had to do was use a combo box and it would have repro’d. I would have never imagined it would have been something as basic as that but it sure makes sense now. The patch is to the software that comes with the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader and I’m happy to say it sure seems to be working…

Now, I’ve started using an add-in for IE that basically does the same thing. You can get the Inline Search add-in here.

Next time it crashed (a COM surrogate crash), I clicked the “Debug” button instead and took a look at the callstack in Visual Studio. Near the top, the only non-core Windows binary there was nevideo.ax. Based on where it was located on the drive (c:\program files\common files\ahead\dsfilter) I figured it was a codec installed by Nero CD/DVD burning software I use. I renamed it, rebooted, and tried to reproduce the crashes. It’s now been a week and I haven’t since seen either of the two crashes I was seeing at least 5-6 times a day. At this point, I ended my debugging (aka “lazy-don’t-want-to-really-debug-anything debugging”) and am much happier now.

I haven’t yet checked out the Nero site to see if they have any updates for Vista or general new versions but will do soon. In the meantime, life is good.

Update (3/11/07): I looked at the Nero site and found an update to the version I had. So I decided to give it a shot. After 4.5 hours of downloading (the patch is almost 200 megs) and maybe 15-20 minutes of installation time I got the update installed. The good news is that it seems to have fixed the crashes I was having before so I no longer have to disable (i.e., hide) the nevideo.ax file. You can get the update here.

Update 6/29 @ 11:27pm:
It actually didn’t install for me–at least not the way I thought it would. After uninstalling IE7 beta 2 and rebooting, I installed IE7 Beta 3 and rebooted again. When I then first tried launching IE, the IE window would quickly flash on and off my screen. I ended up uninstalling it and trying again but had the same results.

I uninstalled it again and did some searching. I tried again but this time I followed some of the advice I found across the web. If you’re running into the same flashing problem I was, you might want to try what seemed to work for me:

• Uninstall IE7 Beta 2. Reboot twice. The second time actually seems to install (or uninstall) some more stuff.
• Disable your anti-virus and anti-spyware software. 
• Install IE7 Beta 3. Reboot twice again.

Kinda strange, but that’s what worked for me and I now have Beta 3 working just fine.