Win 7

Whenever I am browsing, if I want to send an email (contact the editor, owner, Craig's List), then Outlook (the program) is my default email. As Outlook (the program) is tied only to my business account, I will not use it for personal mail. So I cut/paste address and subject.

I always thought that Default Programs was the place to change my settings - where you choose Microsoft, non-MS, or Other settings. It's not - or it's not that simple, because almost of all of the choices are MS Office and Windows programs. It makes sense that Yahoo email isn't a program/feature, but I should be able to tweak something - somewhere - to use outlook.com, because it's actually Live Mail.

After getting my laptop in 2010, I uninstalled most of the worthless and weighty Programs & Features, which included Live! If I can't add outlook.com (or Yahoo) to Programs, then I think the alternative is to Change File Type Associations. Is it?

If yes, the next step is to learn which extension I want to change. A suggestion was to change .msg or .mailto. My .msg is Outlook (MS) and I don't have a .mailto. My only purpose is to send an email from my personal account.

Thank you.

I assume that since you said that you removed Live that would include Windows Live Mail. If Outlook is the only email client on your system there is nothing to change the file association to.

You could always re-install Live Mail (the program) and set to default. Then you could have your business emails go to Outlook and your personal stuff to Live Mail. With Live Mail set to be the default client it would then open when you click a contact link on a web page. Of course you would have to set up an email account (I assume outlook.com) in Live Mail.

When you say that outlook.com is Live Mail that is not totally true. Yes, in its evolution of names, Outlook.com has been called live.com but that is not the same as Windows Live Mail. Live.com/outlook.com are websites. Windows Live Mail is a program that would be installed on your system.

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Jay is correct.

You cannot set the mailto: association to point to a web based mail service. The mailto: association is tied to your installed email client, in this case, Outlook, which is your default client program. If you click a link to send mail, it will open a new message in Outlook.

-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Yes, Jay, you got my drift.

okay - so my only choice: If I reinstall Live, I would login THERE, wading through the unnecessary, unneeded, and unwanted garbage in order to collect my personal mail at outlook.com instead of directly logging in - as I do now - at outlook.com.

Even with four email addresses, currently I only have one client.
It's a deceptive box (Default Programs).

Thank you for explaining it to me.

I understand now, Stephen.

Thank you.

HUH?? I think that you lost me there... If you re-install Live (as in Live Mail, the program) you would not 'go' anywhere, your email would come to you.

From here on it is to be understood that all references to Outlook and Live Mail refer to the programs, not the web sites. If I am referring to a web site I will use such as outlook.com instead of Outlook.

Let's make sure that we are on the same page. You want to use Outlook strictly for your business email account. However you also want to be able to respond to a web page via email but not using Outlook. I will continue assuming that this is all correct.

You would install Live Mail (or another email program such as Thunderbird) and set up your personal email accounts in Live Mail. You would NOT set up your business email account in Live Mail. You would leave your business email account set up in Outlook.

So now your personal emails come into Live Mail and your business emails come into Outlook. While not for the same purpose as you I have both Outlook and Live Mail installed on my systems.

There is still one issue... When you install Live Mail it will probably make itself the default which is what you would want. Unfortunately when you launch Outlook it will probably ask to be made the default again which you do not want. In the Outlook dialog about not being the default there should be a checkbox to not ask again which you would select. Then you would respond with 'No' you do not want to make Outlook the default email client.

End result is that Outlook would be restricted to just your business emails while Live Mail would handle everything else. Also, with Live Mail now being the default email client, when you click a web site link to send an email Live Mail will open instead of Outlook. From your first post in this thread all issues should be solved with what I have outlined.

End of useful post.

As a side note on 'mailto:' it is not really a good thing for a site to use as it tends to be a little unreliable and is acted on in different ways by different browsers. It is also a wonderful media for spammers.

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Outlook.com is not actually Live Mail. Outlook.com is actually Hotmail. It's basically a web page. The program that opens Outlook.com is Internet explorer, or whatever browser you are using. Outlook.com (or Hotmail) isn't a program - think of it as a web address. You wouldn't expect to be able to use google.com as a default program to open something, would you? Or wellsfargo.com - you don't expect anything to open with that, right? They are just websites. Well Outlook.com is a website. You use a browser to open it - not using it to open anything.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Thank you Patty for giving backup to what I've been trying to say.

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You're welcome, Jay.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

I DO have to admit that you did a heck of a lot better than I in explaining the web based email.

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Experience, Jay. Very few non-tech people actually understand it.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

LOL! And MOST tech people know it too well to explain to non techs.

As you know and we've discussed in the past, I DO have a bit of a problem sometimes in translating what I want to say into terms that a novice can follow. It DOES strike me as odd that it seems that the simpler the concept the harder it is for me to translate into "simple-speak". Mayhaps it is just that some things are just so basic to me that I don't know of another way to say. Of course this is a lacking within my own abilities, not a lacking in the person asking the question.

I AM curious. Do you agree or not with my posted solution to Nancy's issue? I can't think of another way to go about it. If it were just a matter of bringing in emails the web based email would work for her. The real issue is having an email client that can respond to a mailto: link on a site without involving Outlook. I don't see any other option other than installing another email client and setting it to be default.

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You're not that bad Jay at explaining things, I'm hopeless at trying to explain things. I've no problems when I have things in front of me, but trying to explain what to do to fix problems in a forum is another matter.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Sure, it's a wonderful solution, Jay. It would be nice to hear back from Nancy.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock