Tip of the Day: Connecting Browser Tab in Opera 9.7
As many of you have learned, when you install the new beta Opera 9.7, the browser tab in TF3D2 (not sure about old TF3D) doesn’t work. Well, with help from David (Special) K, I found two possible solutions. The first one involved a post that David on December 29, 2008. He provides detailed instructions on how to change the default browser to any browser you want. It involves tweaking a file named “InternetPortal-en-US.xml.” And this process can be applied to Opera 9.7.
I was all psyched to make the change myself until I, like another commenter on the Opera 9.7 thread today, realized that we either don’t have “InternetPortal-en-US.xml” or it is buried so deep in our registry that it can’t be found.
So here’s another solution that worked for me (sporting EnergyROM 3.0 and TF3D2). In the Opera 9.7 folder in the Program Files directory is a file named Opera9-ml.exe. Copy this file to your Windows directory. In Windows, you should find the old Opera9.exe file. To be safe, rename the file to, say, Opera9-old.exe. Then rename Opera9-ml.exe to Opera9.exe to replace the old file. You can keep the OperaL.exe file the same. Reset and, presto, the browser tab in TF3D2 works…at least it did for me. Oh, and just to be safe again, don’t remove the old Opera from your phone because then it might delete the old OperaL.exe because the new OperaL.exe didn’t work for me.
As I tell my wife when I repairing stuff around the house, “I usually fix things, but I don’t guarantee my work.” Please let me know if either of these fixes work for you (or not!).
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Comments
jimski DavidK’s fix worked just fine (refer to the link for instructions). I loaded Opera Mobile onto my storage card (9.8MB) so the line in InternetPortal-en-US.xml is a bit different, but:
\storage card\Program Files\Opera Mobile\Opera9-ml.exe
worked on the first try. Opera Mobile could not find MediaNet, so I also had to change my Home Page (also in DavidK’s instructions). Using Stock ATT ROM.
I have never been impressed with Opera but so far this version may make me a believer.
jimski NOTE: They were clipped out of the comment above, but don’t forget to include “” at the start/end of the path (just follow DavidK’s instructions).
Hrvoje ok, this worked like a charm….with a twist, after a soft reset i get Opera launching along side TF3D….what do i need to do to make that stop?
mbrown I too get Opera launching along side TF3D..anyone have a suggestion on how to fix this?
mbrown drjim….when I did a reset the browser fired up when the unit powered back on…so when I turn off the unit then turn it back on it goes through its typical functions but then automatically fires up Opera right after displaying the launching TF3D screen
drjim Mmmm. Probably don’t have an explanation, but let me take a shot. Look in Windows\Start Up and see if there is an Opera file in there. These are all the programs that open when you turn on your phone. All such programs usually run in the background, e.g., TaskFascade, Voice Command. I don’t have an Opera file in my Start Up. If you do, delete it.
Please report back and, if no solution, hopefully, some of the Masters of the Fuze Universe can step in and help.
drjim @mbrown: Given that my strategy has worked for some people, but not others, likely some ideosyncratic issue on your part. The usual recommendation at this point is to uninstall and reinstall. Try that.
mbrown Tried the whole process over..still same result. That really sucks as I was hoping to have that as my default….guess back to the old version
ERWIN CENIZA Works perfectly on my HTC Touch HD. Used Total commander to copy the said file to Windows directory…then searched the files mentioned and renamed all of them using Resco File Explorer. I didn’t even have to reset. Thanks man!
aaron I’m on the new official ROM but with XBMod’s Rhodium. I had to soft reset to get the Browser tab to connect…but I am having the same problem as mbrown: Opera 9.7 launches at startup.
drjim Sorry, guys, I don’t have a solution for you. I have XBMod’s Rhodium to so that’s not the problem. Try posting your problem on the Opera 9.7 thread at xda-developers.com. I haven’t seen it posted there, so it doesn’t appear to be a widespread problem, but that doesn’t make it any less of a problem for you.
aaron I can say, for some odd reason, its definitely related to the method of copying the file and renaming it. I tried both methods independently and thats the only time it happens. Makes no sense.
mbrown aaron…so you have a method of copying,pasting and renaming that corrects this problem? If so can you explain?
drjim Perhaps experiment with ways of copying and renaming. For example, rename old Opera9.exe file in Windows directory. Then make a copy of Opera9-ml.exe in its Program Files folder. Then change the name of the copy to Opera9.exe. Then copy it to the Windows directory.
aaron Only corrects it in that it undoes the changes and puts me back to launching the old Opera from the Browser tab. I just put the files back the way they were before. No real solution. Yet.
I’m gonna play with it more at lunch. I play too much more now I’m gonna be looking for work… 
mbrown ok thanks….yeah I undid everything and it linked back to old opera with no problems and no firing up on restart.
drjim Did you leave the old OperaL.exe in its place in Windows directory, just replacing the Opera9.exe with the renamed Opera9-ml.exe?
drjim Just saw this on xda.
“you have to modify the Startmenu shortcut: instead of having the shortcut point to OperaL.exe, make it point to the opera9-ml.exe file. There seems to be a problem with the OperaL.exe when it is used (at least on my phone).”
Followed by “Alternatively you can just replace the OperaL.exe the shortcut points to with opera9-ml.exe.”
Not sure if either will help, but worth a try. If you don’t know how to create a shortcut, go to the file that you want to create a shortcut for, press the stylus on it until a menu pops up, select Create Shortcut (or something close to that), go to where you want to put the shortcut (i.e., Windows/Start Menu/Programs), press the stylus in an open area, and select Paste.
Ya’ never know…
Ralph Hughes Looked through these and several other lists. Still haven’t found a way to tie the new Opera to the TouchFlo 3D browser tab. Copying .exes or shortcuts into \Windows\ results in Opera firing up repeatedly along side TouchFlo. Changing the link in \Windows\Start Menu easily adds Opera 9.7 to the top level (it was under Start -> Programs anyway).
I’ve kept looking for a configuration item in the bowels of TouchFlo but no luck.
Any other idea??
drjim It seems like it’s a quirk of some sort that afflicts some, but not others. But all our detective work hasn’t discovered any pattern or cause. Probably best to just go back to 9.5. I don’t see any other solution at this point.
Sorry our collective minds couldn’t come up with a solution.
drjim Here’s something I just found on xda. “I only rename back the old opera.exe filename (under \windows\) to the default file name and now I can launch 9.7 via TF3D browser tab.”
Got me thinking. Getting the browser tab to link to 9.7 wasn’t linear, but rather took some experimentation. Assumign I needed to copy over both 9.7 exe files to \Windows, I did just that. I originally renamed the 9.5 OperaL.exe to OperaL-old.exe and copied over the 9.7 OperaL.exe to the \Windows directory (did the same with Opera9-ml.exe), but it 9.7 wouldn’t open from the TF3D tab.
So I deleted the 9.7 OperaL.exe from \Windows, and renamed the 9.5 OperaL-old.exe back to its original name, OperaL.exe. And it worked.
Perhaps try that?
drjim Also saw this on xda: “I have it installed to ROM and don’t have any issues… Maybe the SD card location is the cause for many problems here… I remember there were some issues with 9.5 on SD cards in the beginning as well…”
Did you install to SD instead of internal memory?
Ralph Hughes Mine is installed on internal memory, not the SD. I think the problem has something to do with how the *original* Opera browser was installed. My Touch Pro shipped with Opera pre-installed Uninstalling it is not even an option; it’s not in the list under Settings->system->Remove Programs.
Unlike most well behaved apps the most of the Opera 9.5 code is under \Windows\Opera9 rather than \Program Files and a few pieces (Opera9.exe, OperaL.exe, OperaPreL.exe, and Opera_Cust.xml) are in \Windows.
The Jack of Clubs i love opera 9.7. i have google gears and flash player working on it. i have one of the tf3d builds without InternetPortal-en-US.xml so what i did was open total commander find \windows\27c65cbd_manila select it, and click the button just to the right of the “show” menu to edit the file. add a line below with this:
\Program Files\Opera Mobile\OperaL.exe
that allows you to run both the old opera but launch 9.7 beta with tf3d. i hate to move opera files around when i can just do something like this. i hope that helps someone.
The Jack of Clubs ok this blog program is killing my xml tags. so im going to replace the cheverons with brackets []
in \windows\27c65cbd_manila just below [InternetPortal] add this line”
[BrowserExe]\Program Files\Opera Mobile\OperaL.exe[/BrowserExe]
remember to replace [] with the appropriate xml tag chevrons.
Ralph Hughes THAT is the “hack” I’ve been looking for!
Works like a champ, even with the the old, built-in version of Opera.
Brian Thanks Jack of Clubs — that’s the hack I knew was out there somewhere! It worked perfectly, after many failed attempts at locating other files, moving & renaming stuff, etc. This is much simpler. 
fishbits 9.7 is AWESOME, and this tip from Jack of Clubs made me SO HAPPY! Thank you random smarty stranger that helps other strangers. You are a class act.
fishbits Actually… I do notice it is still loading the older version if the keyboard is slid out and the orientation is horizontal rather than vertical. Any ideas? Thank you though!
VOL The following line in 27c65cbd_manila delivers the desired result:
[BrowserExe]:DEFBROWSER[/BrowserExe]
A long story is the following. I’ve installed Opera 10 beta2 and I wanted to run it by clicking the globe in the internet tab of the TouchFLO. I noticed that Opera 10 registered itself as the default browser (in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Shell/Rai/). So I thought I should better tell TouchFLO to run the default browser (whatever it is) rather than specifying a particular path to Opera 10, because later on I might install a newer version of Opera, and I don’t want each time to fix the path, if needed. I should mention that when I specify a particular path in BrowserExe, it also works (at least for my ThouchFLO 3D 1.1.35345.3), for example,
[BrowserExe]\Windows\iexplore.exe[/BrowserExe]
sorry to be daft but having some trouble finding the opera.xml files. tried searching using total commander but the only thing that came up was the .exe file. is .xml a hidden file?