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Home→Technical→outlook: This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

outlook: This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

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This PC suddenly started to give an error message whenever an outlook email link was clicked:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

Hovering over the link showed it began with the word: “BLOCKED:”

After some quick research, it seemed the solution was to check outlooks security options:

tools -> options -> security -> Secure content -> Zone

I changed the Zone from “Restricted sites” to “Internet”

Now when I hover over the link, I don’t get the “BLOCKED:” prefix, but clicking on the link still gives the “cancelled due to restrictions” error.

Another poke around the internet gives this suggestion: reset the IE  settings to default… ie:

Tools -> internet options -> advanced -> Reset…

But this didn’t fix the problem either.

Next thing to try was:

Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> set program access and defaults -> at this point, “custom” is normally highlighted… click on “custom -> choose default web browser -> pick the specific web browser you want to use (probably Internet explorer) -> OK

I close IE7, and outlook, restart outlook, and links will now open IE7 when they are clicked on. Hooray!

The customer that had this problem asked if it was possible that a past technician had deliberately caused this problem.

Since I had no way of being sure, I told her so… It would be both a very low thing for a technician to do, and something that required some good knowledge to implement… knowledge that can be used for good instead of evil… but who knows, there are some strange people out there.

Comments

outlook: This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer — 26 Comments

  1. omg, I know what you mean totally.
    I’ve fixed things that I know someone did with intention; but in my heart hoped that as a technician I would never stoop to that level to keep or get rid of a customer.

    such a great post,

  2. I had same problem after I gave control of my computer to Symantec in order to get rid of a trojan that had got past Norton 360. It took me ages to solve the problem.

  3. Great Post.
    I have searched, searched, then searched some more to finally arrive here….to find the answer. Who’d thought it would be as simple as redefining my default browser.
    Maybe I can help someone out by listing my affected programs and what i did just prior to all links failing.

    1) I installed Google Chrome (which becomes the default browser without authorization..I might add)

    2) Found out some thimngs didnt work with that browser so I uninstalled it.

    3) Suddenly every link in every Microsoft Program (Outlook, Word, Excel…all of them) stopped working. Kept giving me the “cancelled due to restrictions” error message.

    4) searched and searched for an answer to the problem.

    5)Found this site and did as suggested by resetting my default browser to IE7.

    6) Life is now back to normal.

  4. Another solution to this if none of the above work (resetting etc), download firefox and install…make it the default and then swap it back. Uninstall firefox.

  5. I tried a number of things on this including the program defaults and even exporting/importing reg items. Still no fix. the computer has outlook 2003 but this issue started yesterday and so may have somehting to do with the firefox 3.5.2 update.

  6. Thank you soooo much. Just like some of you who finally came across this site, I was having problems with my email hyperlinks. Tried to follow a few suggestions on other sites, but this hit the jackpot. My Outlook is back to its normal self again. Thanks!

  7. The problem with me started after I installed Google Chrome. The control panel method shown solved the problem. (I have three browsers installed, Chrome, Firefox, and IE. The addition of Chrome probably confused things.)

  8. This worked for me, thanks! I’m not sure what the “set default” thing did, but it did not change my default browser to IE. It remained Chrome, but the links in Outlook now open properly in Chrome.

  9. This happened to me yesterday for the first time. I installed Google Chrome a few weeks ago, and have never liked it. I eventually uninstalled it yesterday when I could not, for the life of me, access htdocs sub directory in my ftp site to update my website. I went back to IE8 and that problem was solved!
    BUT…..
    I restarted my PC as it suddenly crashed – all desktop icons disappeared and I started to panic. The restart threw up an error message which was effectively telling me that a “temporary profile” had been set up because there was a problem with my actual profile.
    ALSO, using IE8 instead of Google Chrome, I got the error message mentioned above when trying to open hyperlinks in Outlook.
    My Solution:
    I have (unfortunately) had to reinstall Google Chrome but then set IE8 as my default browser. This seems to have worked, but I am now extremely concerned about what Google Chrome has done to my system. I am not techie, but I know it’s made my system unstable somehow. Google has also clearly hijacked some controls/permissions to no doubt tie you into them. The whole thing stinks, but how does someone like me (i.e. non-techie) find out what damage, if any, has been done to my system?

  10. Hi Phil. I’ve seen many installations of Chrome, and problems are rare.

    But then again, problems with IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari are also rare.

    I can’t tell if the “chrome” problem is a problem with chrome itself, or a problem with Windows.

    However, its highly unlikely that Google will have hijacked settings to “tie you in to them”… if that was the case, there would be a much bigger uproar about it.

    Most likely its just a bug “somewhere” that means chrome doesn’t work well with some parts of Windows.

    As is the case with most large companies, a fix will probably come along “at some stage”…

    Microsoft are very good at this: they will sometimes deliberately leave security flaws unpatched for months or years.

  11. I noticed last week that my hyperlinks at Outlook Express was no longer working.

    I have spent all morning doing all the things that I had found to do to try to fix it, including changing default to IE…nothing worked.

    After reading Phil’s solution above that he had to reinstall Google Chrome (which I had removed last week also!) my hyperlinks NOW work, but I have to leave Google Chrome as my default…won’t work in IE to switch it back to it instead.

    Guess I will have to live with this for now… BUT I FEEL THAT GOOGLE CHROME IS HIJACKING OUTLOOK EXPRESS TO MAKE US USE THEM AS A DEFAULT SEARCH ENGINE!

    This pisses me off cause I didn’t like it…but what can you do if you want it to work????

  12. I did the same…uninstalled chrome and the problems started !!!

    So this is what i did and it worked.

    Go to internet explorer….click on tools….click on internet options…click on programs tab…click on default web
    brouser(internet explorer)make as default…restart outlook express…it will now work again.

  13. I am running Outlook 2003 on Windows 7 and have had this problem since installing (and then getting rid of) Chrome. None of the above has sorted it…. any further help would be gratefully received. Annnoying in the extreme…

    A

  14. Folks, taking inspiration from some of the answers above, I installed Firefox, set it as default then changed back to IE8. All OK now. Finally. Will NEVER go near Chrome again.

  15. Hi Adey,

    In the past, I’ve had untold problems with running office/outlook 2003 with Vista… I can assume it will be the same with W7.

    I generally tell people: If you use Vista or W7, then get office 2007 or office 2010.

  16. Hello all

    I have the problem with same massage but it shows when I trayed to start antivirus software. NOD32, AVG… You name it. It works when it is installed but when I reset computer, antivirus software is not started. When I try to do that manualy error come to the screen. OS is winXP

    Thank you

  18. I checked it with Fsecure on line scanner, NOD32 when is fresh, AVG whan is fresh, SpyBoot etc. and report is no infection. I think that something happend when last infection ocurred. TaskManager was blocket but I manage to unblock it few days ago. Somehow I thinkg that reinstall OS on that computer will be most likely solution No.1. No one likes that (it’s not mine computer) but they don’t have other choices.

  19. Folks, the problem is Google Chrome. Period. I had no problem until I installed Chrome and didn’t like it. Since then I have uninstalled Chrome, I can’t link with Outlook 2010. I disagree with the statement that problems with Chrome are rare when I see every statement here is about Chrome. I have tried every fix that is mentioned here and I still can’t get it to work. I am now going to install Firefox and try to make it my default and then change it back to IE8. This is frustrating to the nth degree.

  20. I am reading the above and I want a solution to the same problem (links from MS outlook).
    I have Firefox and had a problem with Vista/Firefox/Gmail as Gmail was grinding to a halt. So I decided to move to IE.

    I installed IE7 and deleted fairly quickly and instead opted to route all Gmail emails to MS Outlook except the hyper links won’t work…. Perhaps this is why they are called hyper links as they certainly set me hyper (pun intended).

    On thinking … computers are supposed to make life easy but all I see are problems after problems to burn up valuable hours of time that could be better used elsewhere.

    I think my firsat mistake was going with Vista so back to basics. Dump Vista and get some other operating system other than MS related.

    Gmail is now going over the top with optional extras that I don’t want, so that is now being dumped.

    …. if only I could remember my semaphore from my scouting days or attended those smoke signal classes ….

  21. could any body pls tell me what the solution of this error in win 7 havin microsoft 2003.

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