This guide is dedicated to all my fellow Gmail users who have ever clicked on a “mailto” link to share web content via email, just to realize that the browser has opened the wrong email client.
The most annoying thing my computer does to me is to open Outlook, even though I am a dedicated Gmailer.
Not only Gmail users, I know there will be a lot of other email users as well such as Yahoo or Outlook who must be facing the same situation.
My motive for writing this guide is to educate all the email users out there about how to get their favorite email clients to open the mailto link for them, be it Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or others.
“Mailto” links are hyperlinks that use mailto instead of http://, so if you click them, a new email compose window pops up instead of the website.
For Internet Explorer
Set ‘Mail’ or ‘Outlook’ as Default Email Client
To set the email program of your choice as default for Internet Explorer, here are the steps you need to follow:
Go to the Control Panel of your Windows
Click on ‘Internet Options’
Then hit the ‘Programs’ tab
Click on ‘Set Programs’
Then click on ‘Set your default programs’
From the default apps section, click on ‘Mail’
A new menu will appear where you will see a few programs out of which 2 options are given for the email app which are ‘Mail’ and ‘Outlook’. You can choose any one of them to set as the default email program for the browser.
Notes
If you want to set Gmail or Yahoo as your default email program, you need to follow the steps given further.
Set ‘Gmail’ as Default Email Client
Launch Internet Explorer browser on your PC.
You have to install Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer; for that click on this link- Google Toolbar
After installation, click on the ‘Toolbar Options’ icon given in the top-right hand side of the window.
In the ‘Web-browsing tools’ section, select the checkbox for ‘Use Gmail for “MailTo” Links’.
Finally, click on ‘Save’.
Set ‘Yahoo’ as Default Email Client
Launch Internet Explorer browser on your PC.
You have to install Yahoo Toolbar for Internet Explorer; for that, click on this link- Yahoo Toolbar
Then restart Internet Explorer
Go to ‘Control Panel’
Click on ‘Internet Options’
Click on the ‘Programs’ tab
Then select ‘Yahoo! Mail’ from the drop-down menu and then click ‘Ok’.
For Google Chrome
To change the default email program for Google Chrome, follow the steps listed underneath:
Launch Google Chrome browser
Click on the ‘menu’ icon in the top-right corner and then click on ‘Settings’
On the left, click on ‘Privacy and Security’
Then click on ‘Site Settings’ to expand the menu
Scroll down and click on ‘Additional Permissions’
Then click on ‘Handlers’
Make sure ‘Sites can ask to handle protocols’ is enabled.
For Firefox
To change the default email program for Mozilla Firefox, follow the steps listed underneath:
Click on the menu button of the browser given in the top-right corner and then click on ‘Options’
In the ‘General’ section, scroll down to ‘Applications’.
In the search box, type ‘mailto’ and select it from the ‘Content Type’ tab.
Click on the ‘Action’ column to change the action, and a drop-down menu will appear with a lot of options:
If you select ‘Always Ask’, it will prompt you each time you will use a mail function that which program you want to use.
If you select Use <Program> (default), this will automatically launch your operating system’s email program to its message composition window.
If you select ‘Use Gmail’ or ‘Use Yahoo! Mail’, this will open the message composition page for the webmail service you have selected.
Upon selecting ‘Use other’, you will be allowed to choose an external program for Firefox to launch.
Clicking on ‘Application Details’ will let you view information about all the email programs that Firefox can use.
After making the selection, you just have to close the preferences page and all the changes will be automatically saved.
For Safari
To change the default email app for Safari browser, follow the given instructions:
Launch the Safari web browser
Then, you have to install the ‘Google Mailto Extension’ for Safari by using this link- Google Mailto Extension
Click on the ‘Downloads’ icon given at the right-hand side of the screen.
Then double-click on the extension that you have downloaded.
Click ‘Install’
Now, in the ‘Options’ section, you have to select the email client of your choice by clicking on it.
After that, reload the browser and you’re good to go.
For Windows 10
To change your default email client on Windows 10 is almost the same as changing other default Windows 10 apps. So if you want to set your preferred email client as default, here are some instructions for you:
Click on the Windows icon and then click on the ‘Settings’ icon.
Then click on ‘Apps’
In the left column, click on ‘Default apps’
In the default apps section, click on ‘Mail’ to change the default mail app or program.
From the list that appears, click on the email app that you want to set as default.
You can also set your default email app to a particular protocol, i.e. Mailto, if you want those links to open with an email client other than the system-wide default. For that, you have to go back to the ‘Default apps’ section, and scroll down to the bottom, click on ‘Choose default apps by protocol’
Then scroll down on the left and find ‘MAILTO’; click on ‘Mail’ and select the desired email app to set as default by protocol.
