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I now have Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, and want Gmail as my Default email. I have found no clearly spelled-out information or directions on how to do this successfully. Yes- I know about setting your default programs, and Gmail is not listed as an option.
So then I start the research, and I've gotten as far as reading that i have to "Regisiter with Windows Live Mail" in order to set Gmail as my default email? I started to register with Live Mail, and they want my name and email address and whether I want updates, the YAHOO tool bar, etc. I don't want to register in any other placces than I need, as I know email notes for Windows Live Mail will come. AND does this mean that my gmail goes to windows live mail and then forwarded onto to me??? So is this the only way to get Gmail as default email? Anyone have clear instructions on how to do this? Thank you.
original title: Having Gmail as Default email program.. I am fairly intelligent, BUT THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
This worked for me (Windows Live Mail not needed):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mailto\shell\open\command\
edit (default) to :
"C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
On Sun, 29-Nov-09 19:00:26 GMT, barb1948 wrote:
>
>
> I now have Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, and want Gmail as my Default email.
The term "default e-mail" refers to your default e-mail *program*.
Gmail is not a program, and you can not do this.
> I have found no clearly spelled-out information or directions on
> how to do this successfully. Yes- I know about setting your
> default programs, and Gmail is not listed as an option.
Right! It's not an option because gmail is not a program.
who use gmail use it on their web site, you can
access your gmail using almost any e-mail program you like. Select
your e-mail program and install it. Then go to the gmail web site, and
get the instructions there for using that program for gmail instead of
their web site.
Once you have done that, you can then make that program, the one you
will use to access your gmail, the default e-mail program
> So then I start the research, and I've gotten as far as
> reading that i have to "Regisiter with Windows Live Mail"
> in order to set Gmail as my default email?
Not at all correct. As I said above, you can use almost *any* e-mail
program you want. Windows Live Mail is a choice, but not the only
choice.
> I started to register with Live Mail, and they want my name
> and email address and whether I want updates, the YAHOO tool
> bar, etc. I don't want to register in any other placces than
> I need, as I know email notes for Windows Live Mail will
l goes to windows live
> mail and then forwarded onto to me???
Not exactly. It will go to Windows Live Mail only if you set up
Windows Live Mail for it, following the instructions on the gmail web
site. And it's not really "forwarded."
> So is this the only way to get Gmail as default email?
Once again, you can *not* get an e-mail *service* such as gmail as
your default. Your default has to be a *program*.
> Anyone have clear instructions on how to do this? Thank you.
See above.
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Ken Blake
Thank you for the details, but for a similar problem I had to stop at your description of . . . \mailto\ becasue in my Windows 7 it does not exist at that location. But I will try more search to see if I find it another place.
marvin
The GMail notifier is rather old (2006), and mostly redundant if you already have "Google chat". But it does register itself as mailto: handler, the main point of this thread.
The regedit recipes might work if all users on a box use the same GMail account, but otherwise C:\Users\username*\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome... (see above) is nothing I'd put into HKLM, the**username*** cries for HKCU, doesn't it?
Oddly "program standards => types and protocols" (in windows 7) doesn't allow me to specify a (simple) Chrome command line, in fact I couldn't do anything at all with mailto:after uninstalling Live Mail. Everything worked as I wanted it, that's why I wanted to get rid of unused Windows Live programs. Bad idea, this clobbered a working Chrome + GMail mailto: solution based on Google Apps.
In the "pick standard programs" section of "program standards" I can (again) activate all available standards for Google Apps, i.e., MAPI and mailto. But this uses a Google Apps GMail account (noted as domain=... parameter in a link to Google Apps mail), not my ordinary GMail account.
Work in progress: create another link without domain=... parameter and somehow convince windows 7 that this is another MAPI + mailto handler. As it was before I uninstalled Live Mail, sigh.
Thank you Grant. your Reg edit worked great. I might point out that the stars around the username should be deleted too.
I tried Affixa and it was simply a local email program. not what I wanted. I didn't mess with it too much before uninstalling it but it didn't immediately solve the mailto problem.
