thanks for the suggestions.
Firefox thought it was the default browser.
I found that the "run firefox -silent etc" didn't work as it could not find firefox.exe!
When I looked into the default progs and apps there was NO FIREFOX. Also, the shortcut that opens firefox from the tool bar at the foot of the screen has some mention of IE in it's path which I could not change.
In the end I re-installed Firefox and it seems to be fixed.......... the first email embedded link I clicked failed to find the blood donor uk website but I think that was their end causing the failure.
Rans6....