IE 7 Beta 2 Breaks Outlook Web Links

Unless made the default Web browser, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 reportedly breaks Web links in messages received through at least two versions of the Outlook email client.

The problem has been a topic of discussion on IE newsgroups on Microsoft's support site. The problem affects at least Outlook 2000 and 2003, and similar problems also were reported in Outlook Express.

If a computer user chooses Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox or some other browser as the default, IE 7 Beta 2 apparently prevents Outlook from launching a browser from an email link. Making IE 7 the default corrects the problem, which was confirmed independently by TechWeb on Outlook 2000.

"Happens to me with Firefox set as my default browser," a person, who went by the initials JS said in the newsgroup. "I changed my default browser to IE 7 and everything worked fine. Changed it back to Firefox, and it stopped working.

"Lame, if you ask me."At least one IE 7 user reported fixing the problem after reinstalling Windows, but was frustrated with the experience.

"I would avoid this build until they fix the Outlook problem," the person, who went by the name Xeonbuilder, said.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

IE 7 Beta 2 is expected to be last test version of the browser before the final version is released in the summer. IE 7 is scheduled to ship with Windows Vista in January.