August 13, 1999

You can configure your computer or network to use Netscape Navigator (or another Web browser) exclusively by setting Microsoft Windows® to bypass the integrated function call to Microsoft Internet Explorer. If your entire network plans to use Netscape Navigator, you can also optimize your proxy server for that browser.

In this configuration, however, hyperlinks in the following Microsoft Office 2000 applications do not function properly without some additional customization:

• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Outlook®
• Microsoft PowerPoint®
• Microsoft Publisher
• Microsoft Word

To use Netscape Navigator successfully with Office 2000, you must add or modify the following Windows registry subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Internet

The Internet subkey contains a value entry named ForceShellExecute. When you change the value of ForceShellExecute to 1, Windows no longer calls the integrated Internet Explorer code and instead redirects to the installed browser.

To redirect Office applications to the installed Web browser

1. Start the Registry Editor and select the following subkey:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Internet

2. On the Edit menu, point to New, and click DWORD Value.
3. Enter ForceShellExecute as the value name.
4. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
5. In the Value data box, type 1.

To make this change for all the Office 2000 users in your organization, use the Export Registry File command (Registry menu) in the Registry Editor to export the new registry setting to a file. Then you can use the Office Custom Installation Wizard to add the setting to your transform (MST file).

To add the registry setting to a transform

1. Start the Custom Installation Wizard.
2. On the Add Registry Files panel, click Import.
3. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the folder in which you stored the registry export file, select the file, and then click Open.
4. Delete all entries in the list except ForceShellExecute and click OK.

Related links

For more information about configuring Office 2000 to work with Netscape Navigator, see Using Office with Other Web Servers in the Office 2000 Resource Kit.