How to open a hyperlink into an existing IE

**martin-737** · November 10th, 2008, 07:20 PM

Hello every one!
I hope I am at the right forum asking the right question in the right way. I did search for answers but some how i must be missing the right tags or something. Anywho.
I work with this web site where we have to sign in to work with accounts. Some of the information can be copied and pasted into MS Excell. When I do that, the Hyper Text remains a hyperlink so if I click the cell that contains it, it takes me from excell to the website where we work to the asp or aspx file as long as I am signed in. Now, in one computer it goes straight to the address of the hyperlink from the cell, in all others it opens a new IE and it goes to the sign in page where, after signing in, it goes to the homepage without going all the way the hyper link was suppoused to take you to. I don't know what to change in the other computers to make the hyperlink copied and pasted it from our website into excel to take me to the .asp or .aspx document in our website without making me sign in in a new IE. I know it is possible because one computer does it.
The one computer that does work is a Win 2000 NT and uses MS Excel 2003. All others are xp and/or vista. The ones with vista use MS Excel 2007.
I hope I explained the situation understandably.

**NooNoo** · November 11th, 2008, 03:47 AM

What version IE does the 2k machine use and what version(s) are on the xp/vista boxes? Does the 2k box reuse the existing (logged in) browser instance?

Read here, a lot depends on how the the login system works as well.

**martin-737** · November 11th, 2008, 12:42 PM

Windows 2k uses IE6, all others IE7. But I just learned something a few minutes ago. The one machine that can go straight to the .aspx file in the website when I click the hyperlink in Excel, opens it up in one new IE browser even without me being logged on. It opens the file in the webpage with the ID of whoever copied it and pasted it in excel. Say when I copy and paste it in excel, anybody who opens the .xls file and clicks the hyperlink will open the website and it will say USER martin-737 and from there they could go anywhere with my user id. I think this is more serious than what I thougth huh?
Every time I used it before, the hyperlink took one of the IE6 browsers that I keep opened, always singed in to our website. So I thought one condition for it to work was that I had to be logged on. It seems that it is not necessary since, if there is no IE open, the hyperlink from excell will open one without asking to sign in. Any comments?
IE7 would open a new tab in an existing browser or open a new browser with the log on page.
Thanks for your help, I read it, but I am such an ignorant I did not understand it quite well.

**NooNoo** · November 11th, 2008, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by martin-737

Windows 2k uses IE6, all others IE7. But I just learned something a few minutes ago. The one machine that can go straight to the .aspx file in the website when I click the hyperlink in Excel, opens it up in one new IE browser even without me being logged on. It opens the file in the webpage with the ID of whoever copied it and pasted it in excel. Say when I copy and paste it in excel, anybody who opens the .xls file and clicks the hyperlink will open the website and it will say USER martin-737 and from there they could go anywhere with my user id. I think this is more serious than what I thougth huh?

Yep it means that the link contains your credentials and/or ie6 is caching your credentials... if you clear cache do you get a request to logon?

Originally Posted by martin-737

Every time I used it before, the hyperlink took one of the IE6 browsers that I keep opened, always singed in to our website. So I thought one condition for it to work was that I had to be logged on. It seems that it is not necessary since, if there is no IE open, the hyperlink from excel will open one without asking to sign in. Any comments?

If you type the link into excel (no cut and paste) does it still do it? If so, then the intranet login also needs work since it is not timing out the session.

Originally Posted by martin-737

IE7 would open a new tab in an existing browser or open a new browser with the log on page. Thanks for your help, I read it, but I am such an ignorant I did not understand it quite well.

It explains how and why it works the way it does. It would be worth checking the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\9.0\C ommon\Internet on the 2k machine

Since you don't want your credentials being used, you want their credentials to be used, I suggest that you contact the intranet support people and explain the problem.

**martin-737** · November 11th, 2008, 03:43 PM

I am going to have to talk to the guys in our website.Thanks Noo Noo

**NooNoo** · November 11th, 2008, 04:03 PM

anytime

**martin-737** · November 11th, 2008, 05:25 PM

Hey Noo Noo
I found what it is.
In Internet Options>Security tab>Trusted Sites
I had to add the website that handles our accts. I did that and it worked. Now every computer can open the hyperlink and it goes all the way to the file. The only bad thing is that it keeps my credentials like you said. Oh well. I trust my 2 coworkes anyhow.

**NooNoo** · November 12th, 2008, 03:42 AM

Well up to you... I would always be concerned someone would do something silly and drop me in it if they had my passwords.

And I had forgotten all about trusted sites!

Thanks