Installing Chrome browser with MS Office breaks the hyperlink feature

Sneak attack on MS Office and LiveMail

Google Earth comes automatically with Google Chrome browser. Installing Chrome on a Windows 7 computer which has either MS Office or Windows LiveMail will break the hyperlink feature.

Hyperlink allows to you to click on a link in a document and automatically go to the internet page in the link.

Today after installing the update to Google Earth, clicking on hyperlinks launched Microsoft Word, not the default browser. I don’t think many people use a word processor as a browser.

I didn’t ask for Chrome but it was listed in the installed software. Uninstalling Chrome didn’t solve the hyperlink problem. A full system restore was required to make the hyperlink feature work again. Google Earth had to be removed as well since it was looking for the Chrome plugin.

Not the first time

I ran across this problem before in September 2010.  Chrome and Firefox may break Outlook. When Chrome was installed, clicking on a hyperlink didn’t launch the web browser and find the page. It caused a dead-ending error. “General failure. The URL was “(insert URL)”. Application not found” or “Error launching browser”.

We expect hyperlinks in email to work. Copying them manually to the browser is a frustrating waste of time.

Google knew there was a problem with the linking but denied it. In that instance the only fix was a fresh re-install of Windows 7. Lost time about 5 days.

Despite assurances things were better, the same problem re-occurred in May 2011 when I installed Google Earth. Google Chrome breaks Office 2010. Google and Microsoft by then had acknowledged Chrome didn’t have compatibility with Office. A solution was promised shortly. I had to restore my system to get rid of Chrome in the meantime.

If I wasted the rest of my day looking for the solution it may be available. But I don’t care about Chrome enough. Firefox and IE 9 suit me fine.

Three strikes and you’re out is a good rule.