Talk:Default mail client

Safari question

1. In Safari, choose "Preferences" from the menu.
2. Click the "General" icon, and choose Thunderbird from the default mail reader pop-up menu. If you dont see Thunderbird in the list, make sure it is in the "Applications" folder.

There is no "default mail reader pop-up menu" in the location stated above.

Windows 2000: setting Thunderbird as default mail application fails

Problem

Thunderbird opens when I click "Read e-mail" from the Internet Explorer "Tools" menu, but OE is launched instead when I click an URL of the form mailto:...

Tried solutions

To fix this I tried both, Thunderbird's Options and Windows "Set Program Access and Defaults" (SPAD) but to no avail :-(

Also every time I start Thunderbird, a window pops up asking me if I want to use Thunderbird as the default mail application. Although I click "yes", the window appears again the next time I start Thunderbird.

Reading papers...

KB q297878 states:

Registration as the default Start menu e-mail application is different from registration as the system default e-mail client or the registered mailto handler. The system default e-mail client is started when the user clicks "Read e-mail" from the Internet Explorer "Tools" menu. The registered mailto handler is launched when the user clicks an URL of the form mailto:someone@microsoft.com. The Start menu e-mail application is used when the user clicks the E-mail icon on the Start menu.

MSDN: Registering Programs with Client Types states:

Mail Client Registration For a mail client, the program needs to have registered settings under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto key in order to service URLs that use the mailto protocol. Set values and keys that mirror those settings under the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Clients/Mail/CanonicalName/Protocols/mailto. This entire registry hierarchy replaces the existing mailto registry hierarchy found at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto.

Analysis

Obviously Thunderbird fails to follow Microsoft registration procedure as my HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto is a copy of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Clients/Mail/Outlook Express/Protocols/mailto. :-(

Mozilla's Internet-related entries in the Windows registry mentions Mozilla having the same problem:

However, Mozilla specifically does not set up HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto to point to Mozilla.

Fix

To register Thunderbird as the mailto handler manually, open regedit and replace the existing mailto registry hierarchy found at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto with the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Clients/Mail/Mozilla Thunderbird/Protocols/mailto registry hierarchy.

Daniel29 22:18, 12 January 2006 (UTC)