Hyperlinks in Windows Mail opening Microsoft Word doc

[sunflowergnat]

I was on vacation for a few days with my laptop completely turned off and when I came back and turned it on, all of a sudden these hyperlinks open the web page as a Word doc. This just started happening about a week ago. Any ideas? It also happens from my Google Talk desktop shortcut that I don't use very often.

It is really annoying.

[Domes]

could be that your default program for opening .htm and .html programs has been changed to word, instead of your web browser. Right click on the file, mouse over "open with" and click on "choose program" or "choose default program" [i don't know which it is on vista, I use win 7]
then, chose your web browser from the list of programs, and click ok. If there is a checkbox for "always use this program" check it.

This should fix the problem.

Alternatively, if you open the start menu, and type "default programs" into the search bar, a link to the default programs setting should come up. [at least it does in 7, I haven't tested this in vista]

click associate a file type or protocol witha specific program, and scroll down until you find htm and html. My guess is that they are currently set to word on your computer, change the program to your favorite web browser and you're set!