Talk:The associated helper application does not exist

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User permissions

If the users windows account doesn't have permission to write the registry, I don't see how removing the action and specifying the helper grants Firefox the necessary permission. That would seem to work only if those steps somehow granted Firefox rights the user was not entitled to.

The article should tell the user how to find out if they don't have the necessary permissions. As written it assumes they were able to figure that the reason the normal instructions failed was due to not having the necessary permissions.

What about Linux and OSX users? I understand the bias towards windows users in writing articles, but if they can run into this problem too they shouldn't be totally ignored. The text could acknowledge that its a problem that could occur with any operating system while only giving instructions on how to fix it for windows users. Tanstaafl 19:21, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

I basically wrote about what the guy reported in the forum thread. My guess as to what's going on is that choosing the action will store it in the mimeTypes.rdf rather than the registry. So in effect, doing what is suggested will bypass the registry entirely.
His description of the problem said that his account didn't have access to the Windows registry, which of course isn't an issue on other OSes. If similar problems can happen on other OSes, then they should be mentioned, but I don't know of any.--Np 19:43, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
My impression was that its normally stored in mimetypes.rdf anyways. I don't think its a good idea to document this unless you either understand whats going on , verified what the user reported or find several more posts that report the same thing. Your documenting it implies that its known good information. I suggest you either create another windows account, duplicate the problem, and update the article or remove that section. Tanstaafl 21:57, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
I just found the link to the forum thread. It wasn't placed in a location that would make me associate it with the user permission section. I got the impression that jrcagle's solution didn't work for anitahill who was using OSX. Also note that edonaldson had the same problem but had no listed file types. Maybe I missed it but I got the impression jrcagle's solution only worked for him. Tanstaafl 22:09, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
I agree that mentioning the Windows registry or user permissions isn't helpful in this article and makes it unnecessarily complicated. Adaywayne, the OP in the referenced thread said, The solution that worked for me is >Tools>Options> Downloads tab>'View and Edit Actions' button and then select an installed player to play the m3u files. and later said, Alice, that seems like the most likely explanation since Firefox did not give me the option you mention. Good thinking. And yes, I had uninstalled Real Player and replaced it with Real Player Alternative. Here is another Firefox forum post that explains the source of the problem, uninstalling the program that was set up in Firefox as the helper application for the download action. As I understand it, the MimeTypes.rdf file could cause the error if it contains outdated information when the default or preferred external application changes. I would just tell people to either change the download action or remove the entry for that filetype so that the "opening" dialog will again appear, the next time that type of file is downloaded (and maybe include a link to Changing_media_handling_behaviour#Resetting_download_actions as a last resort). Here are some related bug reports I found for additional documentation:
Alice 02:00, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Thunderbird

This issue also affects Thunderbird (see this forum topic and this mozilla.support.thunderbird newsgroup thread) so possibly the article can be expanded to include instructions for Thunderbird. Just a suggestion. Alice 02:01, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Please reconsider title or figure out how to give it an alias

This article is automatically alphabetized under "The". Great choice.--AnotherGuest. 13:50, 2 July 2007 (UTC)