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

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.

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Posted by Computer Help in Technical

11 Comments »

11 Responses to “outlook: This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer”

RE Ausetkmt says:

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,

July 10th, 2009 at 8:18

OldKrok says:

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.

July 14th, 2009 at 23:24

Mark (Wannabe Geek) says:

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.

July 22nd, 2009 at 6:23

PartyMarty says:

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.

July 29th, 2009 at 3:06

J says:

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.

August 5th, 2009 at 6:48

soso says:

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!

September 14th, 2009 at 7:07

DSL says:

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.)

October 14th, 2009 at 9:23

vb says:

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.

February 24th, 2010 at 0:26

Phil says:

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?

April 11th, 2010 at 20:04

Computer Help says:

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.

April 14th, 2010 at 14:27

Gail Russell says:

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????

August 25th, 2010 at 4:23

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

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