Default email program in Internet Explorer (6.0)

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Could someone please let me know how to set up Outlook Express as the default email program in Internet Explorer (Tools/Options/Programs) when it is not in the list of email programs to choose from.
Thank you

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Please open Outlook Express, go to ‘Tools’ on the menubar, click ‘Options’, then click the ‘General’ tab. In the ‘Default Messaging Programs’ area at the bottom, click ‘Make Default’ for e-mail, then click ‘Apply’, then ‘OK’.

It will now be your default email program and next time you reboot you will see it in the Internet Explorer’s Tools/Options/Programs/Email area.

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Thank you Bruce!

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I have the opposite problem. When I click on a mailto: link on a web page or Office document, Outlook Express starts instead of Outlook.

I am running on a corporate Win2kPro machine that was recently converted from using Lotus Notes to Outlook 2k. The rest of Office Pro 2k is also installed.

I thought your previous answer was the clue, but the OE ‘General’ tab states that OE is not the default email program. IE (5.5) ‘Programs’ tab also lists Outlook as the email program.

Any idea how to make Outlook behave like a good default program should? Thanks.

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Oftentimes, for Outlook to stick as your default mail client, there are two places this setting has to be changed as just changing a setting in Outlook or IE by itself will not suffice.

First, open Outlook > ‘Tools’ > ‘Options’ > ‘Other’ tab & make Outlook your default email program in the ‘General’ area, then ‘Apply’ > ‘OK’ and exit.

Now open IE > ‘Tools’ > ‘Internet Options’ > ‘Programs’ & select ‘Outlook’ from the drop-down ‘E-mail’ box then ‘Apply’ > ‘OK’ to set Outlook as the behaving default program for your email.

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I am having the same problem with IE6 and Outlook 2000. When I go to the tools>options>general in Outlook I do not have the check box for the default mail client? Where is it?

Thanks for your help,
BB

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I’m fairly certain the screen shot Bruce shows above is from OL2002 – the option does not exist in OL2000.
Have you set Outlook as your mail client in IE > Tools > Internet Options > Programs ?

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Yes I have set it in IE and also tried the suggestion of switching to something besides Outlook and rebooting then switching it back, but it is still not working. I wonder if there is an option when installing Outlook 2000 that I missed? Do I have to reinstall?

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Hi, BB ~

Leif is exactly right. If his suggestion to do this:

• Open one instance of IE > ‘Tools‘ > ‘Internet Options‘ > ‘Programs‘ tab
• Select ‘Outlook‘ from the drop-down ‘E-mail‘ box then ‘Apply‘ > ‘OK‘[/list]does not work, sometimes for your default mail client to stick, there is another place this setting may have to be changed. If you have XP & IE6 SP1 installed, then try this:
  • ‘Start‘ > ‘Control Panel‘ > ‘Add or Remove programs‘
  • On the left-hand side if the window, click the ‘Set program access and defaults’ button
  • Put the dot in the ‘Custom‘ radio button and click the down double-arrow
  • Under ‘Choose a default e-mail program:‘, put the radio button in ‘Outlook‘ and you may also check the box next to ‘Enable access to this program‘ across from ‘Outlook‘ > ‘OK‘[/list]

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That may be where the problem is. For some reason Outlook is not showing up there (see screenshot), just Outlook Express.

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Try putting the button on the ‘Microsoft Windows‘ configuration rather than ‘Custom‘ and see what is going on there.

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There it shows the following:
E-mail Program: Use my current Microsoft e-mail program
The only other option is Outlook Express not Outlook?

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It looks like I have the same problem. My system was recently reintalled. The OS is XP Pro and they installed Office XP except that for some reason they installed Outlook 2002. I just asked them to install Outlook 2003 and I think that’s when the mailto function disapeared. The email program dropdown list Hotmail, Lotus Notes, MSN Explorer and Outlook Express, no Outlook. The check box in Outlook Tools/Options/Other – General is checked to make Outlook the default email client. I checked the Set Program Access and Defaults in Add/Remove for Internet Explorer and Outlook is not listed there. I also looked and Outlook is not listed at all as a program in Add/Remove.

Thanks for any help.

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Is it possible to arrange a reinstall of Office 2002 (XP) including Outlook? Is is possible that the problem stems from not having had all parts installed at once.

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I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, I’ve done two complete reinstalls from the OS on up in the last two months. I’m getting tired of playing games with this thing.

Thanks,

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What I meant was reinstalling Office XP in full over the current install. One ground-up reinstall is no fun – sorry for any misunderstanding.

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What I meant was reinstalling Office XP in full over the current install. One ground-up reinstall is no fun – sorry for any misunderstanding.

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What about trying (from the Office XP or whichever version of Office you were in toolbar) Help> Detect and Repair and System File Checker which covers Office files as well, and if not moving onto a repair install from the Office CD’s maintainace mode? None of these takes much time.

References:

Detect and Repair Thread Lounge Office

Post 338243: System File Checker First 3 Links

SMBP

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What about trying (from the Office XP or whichever version of Office you were in toolbar) Help> Detect and Repair and System File Checker which covers Office files as well, and if not moving onto a repair install from the Office CD’s maintainace mode? None of these takes much time.

References:

Detect and Repair Thread Lounge Office

Post 338243: System File Checker First 3 Links

SMBP

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I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, I’ve done two complete reinstalls from the OS on up in the last two months. I’m getting tired of playing games with this thing.

Thanks,

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Is it possible to arrange a reinstall of Office 2002 (XP) including Outlook? Is is possible that the problem stems from not having had all parts installed at once.

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Just an FYI on MS terminology. Each piece of Office XP is a 2002 version and Outlook 2002 is a component of Office XP. That’s why you won’t see Outlook as a separate product in add/remove programs. I’d try a repair install of the Office Installation to see if that makes Outlook available in the IE list. BTW, Outlook does not appear on my XP Pro/Office XP system in set programs access and defaults.

Joe

--Joe

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Just an FYI on MS terminology. Each piece of Office XP is a 2002 version and Outlook 2002 is a component of Office XP. That’s why you won’t see Outlook as a separate product in add/remove programs. I’d try a repair install of the Office Installation to see if that makes Outlook available in the IE list. BTW, Outlook does not appear on my XP Pro/Office XP system in set programs access and defaults.

Joe

--Joe

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Would everyone agree that this information should be kept somewhere safe and relatively stable — like the registry?

First off, the “mailto: protocol handler” may not be the same as the “default email handler”. Or it might be — and it probably is — but let’s don’t assume it right away. Let’s take a peak at the “mailto” connections first.

Open regedit and drill down to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTmailto

Drill further down through shellopencommand. There you should find the program that is “associated” with the mailto protocol. Mine says: “C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeoutlook.exe” -c IPM.Note /m “(percent)1”. That tells me that Outlook is associated with my mailto protocol. (For now just ignore the letters after the “outlook.exe” part). Anyone should be able to identify the program associated with their mailto protocol by looking in this key.

Now, the options that appear in Internet Explorer are stored somewhere else in the registry. Next, drill down to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareClientsMail. Does that list look familiar? It should. Drill down into one of them. You will find the identical shellopencommand. But be sure to also look into the “Protocols” sub-key and you will find a separtately listed “mailto” entry — it also has that shellopencommand structure.

Oh, go back and highlight the “Mail” key just under Clients. You will note that the (Default) value is the program that you have selected as your “default mail handler” in Internet Explorer — or it should be.

If both Outlook and Outlook Express do not appear in that list, then that explains why you don’t see those options in Internet Explorer.

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OK, to visualize the connection, one can easily see that I simply added a new bogus Email program in the registry. Lo and Behold, Internet Explorer now gives me that as an option in the drop down box (see image below).

Now for the experimental part. Do two things first — back up your entire registry AND back up the two keys I listed above (HKCRmailto and HKLMSoftwareClientsMail).

Now go ahead and change email handlers in Internet Explorer. If you used to have OE choose Outlook, or vice versa. Or if you are really wild, choose Hot Mail. Now let’s go back and see what happens to the “mailto” protocol. I found out something rather disturbing.

On Win98SE:

Going from Outlook to OE, the new shellopencommand for HKCRmailto is “C:PROGRAM FILESOUTLOOK EXPRESSMSIMN.EXE” /mailurl:(percent)1. OK, that shows pretty good correlation — the default email program is now the default mailto protocol handler. But wait…

Going back to Outlook from OE, the new shellopencommand for HKCRmailto is blank!. Yep, the screen reads “value not set”. Ooops! This is a faux pas. On this Win98 box, choosing Outlook as the default email handler breaks the mailto protocol!

If I double-check back in the registry, I see that this should NOT happen! Outlook has the correct listed data here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareClientsMailMicrosoft OutlookProtocolsmailtoshellopencommand
(Default)=”C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeoutlook.exe” -c IPM.Note /m “(percent)1”
But… somehow IE is not correctly updating that registry value — but ONLY when switching to Outlook.

If that wasn’t weird enough, there’s more…

On WinXP:

No matter what default email handler I select in Internet Explorer, “msimn.exe” (Outlook Express) stays the mailto protocol handler!! This seems to imply that Outlook Express is the mailto protocol handler whether you want it to be or not!!

The Set Program Access and Defaults also seems to have this attitude. Despite the fact that Outlook and Hot Mail appear in Internet Explorer as Mail options, Add or Remove Programs dialog box seems to be locked onto a choice of ONE. Humorously that is the case even though you have selected “Non-Microsoft” and “Custom”. You are only give ONE choice — Microsoft’s Outlook Express.

Very bizarre.
_____________

Had to change the percent sign to (percent) in order for the page to format correctly!

Reply | Quote

OK, to visualize the connection, one can easily see that I simply added a new bogus Email program in the registry. Lo and Behold, Internet Explorer now gives me that as an option in the drop down box (see image below).

Now for the experimental part. Do two things first — back up your entire registry AND back up the two keys I listed above (HKCRmailto and HKLMSoftwareClientsMail).

Now go ahead and change email handlers in Internet Explorer. If you used to have OE choose Outlook, or vice versa. Or if you are really wild, choose Hot Mail. Now let’s go back and see what happens to the “mailto” protocol. I found out something rather disturbing.

On Win98SE:

Going from Outlook to OE, the new shellopencommand for HKCRmailto is “C:PROGRAM FILESOUTLOOK EXPRESSMSIMN.EXE” /mailurl:(percent)1. OK, that shows pretty good correlation — the default email program is now the default mailto protocol handler. But wait…

Going back to Outlook from OE, the new shellopencommand for HKCRmailto is blank!. Yep, the screen reads “value not set”. Ooops! This is a faux pas. On this Win98 box, choosing Outlook as the default email handler breaks the mailto protocol!

If I double-check back in the registry, I see that this should NOT happen! Outlook has the correct listed data here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareClientsMailMicrosoft OutlookProtocolsmailtoshellopencommand
(Default)=”C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeoutlook.exe” -c IPM.Note /m “(percent)1”
But… somehow IE is not correctly updating that registry value — but ONLY when switching to Outlook.

If that wasn’t weird enough, there’s more…

On WinXP:

No matter what default email handler I select in Internet Explorer, “msimn.exe” (Outlook Express) stays the mailto protocol handler!! This seems to imply that Outlook Express is the mailto protocol handler whether you want it to be or not!!

The Set Program Access and Defaults also seems to have this attitude. Despite the fact that Outlook and Hot Mail appear in Internet Explorer as Mail options, Add or Remove Programs dialog box seems to be locked onto a choice of ONE. Humorously that is the case even though you have selected “Non-Microsoft” and “Custom”. You are only give ONE choice — Microsoft’s Outlook Express.

Very bizarre.
_____________

Had to change the percent sign to (percent) in order for the page to format correctly!

Reply | Quote

Would everyone agree that this information should be kept somewhere safe and relatively stable — like the registry?

First off, the “mailto: protocol handler” may not be the same as the “default email handler”. Or it might be — and it probably is — but let’s don’t assume it right away. Let’s take a peak at the “mailto” connections first.

Open regedit and drill down to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTmailto

Drill further down through shellopencommand. There you should find the program that is “associated” with the mailto protocol. Mine says: “C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeoutlook.exe” -c IPM.Note /m “(percent)1”. That tells me that Outlook is associated with my mailto protocol. (For now just ignore the letters after the “outlook.exe” part). Anyone should be able to identify the program associated with their mailto protocol by looking in this key.

Now, the options that appear in Internet Explorer are stored somewhere else in the registry. Next, drill down to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareClientsMail. Does that list look familiar? It should. Drill down into one of them. You will find the identical shellopencommand. But be sure to also look into the “Protocols” sub-key and you will find a separtately listed “mailto” entry — it also has that shellopencommand structure.

Oh, go back and highlight the “Mail” key just under Clients. You will note that the (Default) value is the program that you have selected as your “default mail handler” in Internet Explorer — or it should be.

If both Outlook and Outlook Express do not appear in that list, then that explains why you don’t see those options in Internet Explorer.

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It looks like I have the same problem. My system was recently reintalled. The OS is XP Pro and they installed Office XP except that for some reason they installed Outlook 2002. I just asked them to install Outlook 2003 and I think that’s when the mailto function disapeared. The email program dropdown list Hotmail, Lotus Notes, MSN Explorer and Outlook Express, no Outlook. The check box in Outlook Tools/Options/Other – General is checked to make Outlook the default email client. I checked the Set Program Access and Defaults in Add/Remove for Internet Explorer and Outlook is not listed there. I also looked and Outlook is not listed at all as a program in Add/Remove.

Thanks for any help.

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OK, so any sugestions on the Newsgroups? I use free agent, and Outlook is the only option(IE 5.5, 98SE). Also, HTML editor was stuck until I added a new editor, which asked. I don’t knpw how to configure this dialogue box.

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R2-
Interesting tutorial on mailto registry settings, my machine has its own peculiarities. The HKCR/mailto entry on my XPPro machine is similar to yours but does change when I pick from the list in IE. If I look at the HKLM/software/clients/mail key though Outlook is listed but is not on the dropdown in IE. The structure for Outlook is totally different than the others though and the default value for Outlook is not set. If I set this it show up on the pull down in IE but the Protocols key has nothing but an empty default and nothing under it. There is no shell or any other key for Outlook.

Thanks

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The missing (Default) value is the reason that Outlook does not appear in the drop-down list. Outlook uses the (Default) value to determine what to display — just as shown in my example.

If the Outlook Mail Client key is present but it is imcomplete (no Protocols sub-key, no shell commands), then there is no reason to list it in Outlook — until you modify the key to be correct.

What is your exact version of Outlook that you are using now (Outlook 2002 vs. Outlook 2003?) and can you verify the path to your outlook.exe file?

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R2-
I’m using Outlook 2002sp2 located at C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office XPOffice10OUTLOOK.EXE.

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I have Outlook8 (1998) on one computer and Outlook11 (2003) on another. Ideally if someone can export the registry key for Outlook 2002 (XP), you could Merge that into your registry and you would likely be all set.

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I have Outlook8 (1998) on one computer and Outlook11 (2003) on another. Ideally if someone can export the registry key for Outlook 2002 (XP), you could Merge that into your registry and you would likely be all set.

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Chris,
Attached is the Outlook registry entry from my system with Outlook XP installed.

HTH,
Joe

--Joe

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Can you attach it as a zipped .reg file??

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Can you attach it as a zipped .reg file??

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Chris,
Attached is the Outlook registry entry from my system with Outlook XP installed.

HTH,
Joe

--Joe

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Chris,
Save it and then change the extension to .reg

Joe

--Joe

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Thank you! I hope that will do it. Let us know, Chris.

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Successes! I imported it to the registry, changed the path to Outlook, selected Outlook in IE, closed IE and re-opened and everything works.

Thanks loads everyone

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Successes! I imported it to the registry, changed the path to Outlook, selected Outlook in IE, closed IE and re-opened and everything works.

Thanks loads everyone

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Thank you! I hope that will do it. Let us know, Chris.

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Chris,
Save it and then change the extension to .reg

Joe

--Joe

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R2-
I’m using Outlook 2002sp2 located at C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office XPOffice10OUTLOOK.EXE.

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The missing (Default) value is the reason that Outlook does not appear in the drop-down list. Outlook uses the (Default) value to determine what to display — just as shown in my example.

If the Outlook Mail Client key is present but it is imcomplete (no Protocols sub-key, no shell commands), then there is no reason to list it in Outlook — until you modify the key to be correct.

What is your exact version of Outlook that you are using now (Outlook 2002 vs. Outlook 2003?) and can you verify the path to your outlook.exe file?

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