Failed to open VirtualBox Web Site from help-menu (XP host only)

[oceanic]

I take the menu-entry "VirtualBox Web Site" in the help-menu. Then I see message:

"Failed to open ​http://www.virtualbox.org. Make sure your desktop environment can properly handle URLs of this type."

My OS: Windows XP SP3. Default browser: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.1

[Jelle Geerts]

This might have to do with the COM state of the thread.

I've made a little example in C in which ShellExecute() (which is the Win32 function used by Qt to open an URL) also fails:

#include <windows.h>
#include <objbase.h>

int main() {
#if 1
    CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_DISABLE_OLE1DDE);                            /* ShellExecute() below should fail. */
#else
    CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED | COINIT_DISABLE_OLE1DDE); /* ShellExecute() below should succeed. */
#endif

    ShellExecute(0, 0, "http://www.virtualbox.org", 0, 0, 1);

    CoUninitialize();
    return 0;
}

[Mark22]

Also see bug #5134, which looks related. My OS: XP Pro SP3, Firefox 3.5.3

[Technologov]

hmmm... Works fine here.

Host: Windows Vista, 32-bit, VBox 3.0.10, FFox 3.5.

Is this related to XP SP3 host OS ?

-Technologov

[Jelle Geerts]

Yes, it works in both Vista and 7.

[Mark22]

Which version of VirtualBox contains the fix? It still does not work on XP.

[Technologov]

Well, this problem is reproduced on XP SP2 Host with VBox 3.1.0-BETA1 + FFox 3.5.5. So not fixed.

[Jelle Geerts]

If the intention is to support Windows XP, then this bug is indeed not fixed.

[Mark22]

According to the virtualbox homepage XP is supported along with NT 4.0, 2000, Server 2003, Vista, and Windows. I know it's a minor bug but it's /very/ obvious. VirtualBox frequently nags the user to upgrade and none of the links /ever/ work.

[Jelle Geerts]

You have looked at the supported guests. Windows 2000 is not supported as a host. This bug is related to the host platform.

[Mark22]

The latest documentation (3.0.10) does say that XP (all service packs) is supported as a host OS.

[Jelle Geerts]

I know that; that's why I posted 'If the intention is to support Windows XP, then this bug is indeed not fixed.', to be sure the developers (perhaps in this case sandervl73) would re-evaluate if this bug was not closed accidentally.

[Frank Mehnert]

No need to debate further, this is clearly a bug and we will try to fix it but the fix is not straight-forward, otherwise we had already done it.

[Jelle Geerts]

Agreed. Perhaps a workaround would be to spawn a new thread, initialize COM there, and then call QDesktopServices::openUrl()? Although perhaps that's hacky; I guess it should be fixed in Qt itself.

[Technologov]

Tested on XP SP2 host. It works with both IE8 and FFox 3.5 browsers.

Vbox 3.1.0

Fix verified.

-Technologov