Links in email messages won't turn blue

I just upgraded to windows 7 64 bit and had to reinstall Office 2007. Now
when ever I type a new email and I want to type a URL or copy and past a URL
the URL will not automaticlly turn blue, underline and become hyperlinked.
Yes I have pressed the space bar and even the enter key after inserting the
URL. I have been doing this for years but now my upgraded system won't do it.
My signature email address and website is hyperlinked and I can right click
and add a hyperlink and that all works as it should. The message format is
HTML. I have reset my browser making sure IE 8 is the default browser. I
have read through several posting but I have not seen my answer. I have been
copy and pasting URLs from the IE address bar into Outlook for a long time.
It has always worked great. I hope someone can help me.

Thanks in advance.
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Tbrox