An Instructive Guide to Change the Default Email Program for Different Browsers

| Updated on February 13, 2024

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:

  1. Go to the Control Panel of your Windows
  2. Click on ‘Internet Options’
Go to the Control Panel and click on ‘Internet Options’
  1. Then hit the ‘Programs’ tab
Hit the ‘Programs’ tab
  1. Click on ‘Set Programs’
Click on ‘Set Programs'
  1. Then click on ‘Set your default programs’
Click on ‘Set your default programs'
  1. From the default apps section, click on ‘Mail’
Click on ‘Mail'
  1. 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.

Choose either ‘Mail’ or ‘Outlook’ option to set as the default email program for the browser

Set ‘Gmail’ as Default Email Client

  1. Launch Internet Explorer browser on your PC.
  2. You have to install Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer; for that click on this link- Google Toolbar
  3. After installation, click on the ‘Toolbar Options’ icon given in the top-right hand side of the window. 
  4. In the ‘Web-browsing tools’ section, select the checkbox for ‘Use Gmail for “MailTo” Links’.
  5. Finally, click on ‘Save’.

Set ‘Yahoo’ as Default Email Client

  1. Launch Internet Explorer browser on your PC.
  2. You have to install Yahoo Toolbar for Internet Explorer; for that, click on this link- Yahoo Toolbar
  3. Then restart Internet Explorer 
  4. Go to ‘Control Panel’
  5. Click on ‘Internet Options’
  6. Click on the ‘Programs’ tab
  7. 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:

  1. Launch Google Chrome browser 
  2. Click on the ‘menu’ icon in the top-right corner and then click on ‘Settings’
On Chrome browser, click on the ‘Menu’ icon and select ‘Settings'
  1. On the left, click on ‘Privacy and Security’
Click on the ‘Privacy and Security’ option'
  1. Then click on ‘Site Settings’ to expand the menu
Click on ‘Site Settings'
  1. Scroll down and click on ‘Additional Permissions’
Click on ‘Additional Permissions'
  1. Then click on ‘Handlers’
Click on ‘Handlers'
  1. Make sure ‘Sites can ask to handle protocols’ is enabled.
Enable ‘Sites can ask to handle protocols

For Firefox

To change the default email program for Mozilla Firefox, follow the steps listed underneath:

  1. Click on the menu button of the browser given in the top-right corner and then click on ‘Options’
On Firefox browser, click on the menu and then, click on ‘Options’
  1. In the ‘General’ section, scroll down to ‘Applications’.
Scroll down to ‘Applications’ in the General section
  1. In the search box, type ‘mailto’ and select it from the ‘Content Type’ tab.
Type ‘Mailto’ and select it from the ‘Content Type’ tab
  1. 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.
Click on ‘Action’ column to change the action using the drop-down menu options
  1. 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:

  1. Launch the Safari web browser
  2. Then, you have to install the ‘Google Mailto Extension’ for Safari by using this link- Google Mailto Extension
  3. Click on the ‘Downloads’ icon given at the right-hand side of the screen.
  4. Then double-click on the extension that you have downloaded.
  5. Click ‘Install’
  6. Now, in the ‘Options’ section, you have to select the email client of your choice by clicking on it.
  7. 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:

  1. Click on the Windows icon and then click on the ‘Settings’ icon.
Click on the Windows icon and then, click on ‘Settings’ icon
  1. Then click on ‘Apps’
Click on ‘Apps'
  1. In the left column, click on ‘Default apps’
Click on ‘Default Apps'
  1. In the default apps section, click on ‘Mail’ to change the default mail app or program.
In the default section, click on ‘Mail’ to change the default mail app or program
  1. From the list that appears, click on the email app that you want to set as default.
From the list of options, click on ‘Email app’ you want to set as default
  1. 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’
Go back to ‘Default apps’ section and click on ‘Choose default apps by protocol’ from the bottom
  1. Then scroll down on the left and find ‘MAILTO’; click on ‘Mail’ and select the desired email app to set as default by protocol.
Find ‘Mailto’ and click on ‘Mail’ to select the desired email app to set as default by protocol


Jeremy L. Price

Education

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