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Changing the mail program used in Firefox

From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Firefox normally uses the system default mail program for sending mail, such as when you click on a "mailto" link (example) or when you use "File -> Send Link" in Firefox to send an e-mail with a link to the current web page.

Starting in Firefox 3, you can select a different mail program in the Firefox Applications window (" Tools -> Options -> Applications"). Simply select the mailto entry and use the drop-down menu to change the action, as shown below:

Applications Options window in Firefox 3.5
Image:Fx35Applications-mailto.PNG

"Use other" allows you to select an installed mail program that isn't listed in the drop-down menu:

  1. Click "Use other..." to open the "Select Helper Application" window.
  2. Click the "Browse" button.
  3. In the file picker, navigate to the installation directory for the mail program you wish to use and select the application.

On Windows, for example, if you want to use Mozilla Thunderbird and it isn't listed, click "Use other...", browse to the folder where Thunderbird is installed (usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird) and select "thunderbird.exe". "Use Mozilla Thunderbird" will then be listed as the "mailto" action and will remain listed as an option in the drop-down menu, even if you later change the mailto action to one of the other listed options.

In addition to installed mail programs, Webmail services (Yahoo! Mail and, starting in Firefox 3.5, Gmail) can also be selected. If you want to use a Webmail service that is not listed, Firefox extensions to launch Webmail are also available.

Clicking "Application Details..." opens the "Application details" window, where mailto actions that can be used in place of the default mail program are listed. To remove an entry from the list, select it and click the "Remove" button.

Application details window in Firefox 3.5
Image:Fx35-MailtoAppDetails.PNG
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Extension issues

The Google Toolbar for Firefox includes a "Send with Gmail" feature that changes the mail program used in Firefox to Gmail, regardless of what is set in Firefox options or your system default mail program. It is recommended that you do not select the "Send with Gmail" option in the Google Toolbar. Firefox 3.5 already has a "Use Gmail" option available by default in the Applications listing for mailto actions (see above). More importantly, uninstalling the Google Toolbar extension with the "Send with Gmail" feature enabled may leave you with Firefox opening nothing at all for mailto links. [1] [2] You can resolve this issue by resetting the Firefox user preference network.protocol-handler.external.mailto to the default "true" value in about:config. See Resetting preferences for details.
Note: the Google Toolbar is no longer supported by Google for Firefox 5 and up, see Using Google Toolbar features without toolbars

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See also

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External links

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