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Free Email TutorialsWindows MailMake Windows Mail the default email program in Windows Vista

Make Windows Mail the default email program in Windows Vista

Set Windows Mail as default email program in Vista Since Windows Mail ships bundled with Windows Vista, it is automatically set as the default email program. But if you manually install another email client on your computer, or if an email program comes bundled with an Internet suite of some kind, another program may have been set as the default mail handler instead. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to change your default email program back to Windows Mail; this is something you can do either from within Windows Mail, or through the Vista's Control Panel.

Tip: to pick another default email program through the control panel, see this tutorial: change default email client in Windows Vista.

Set Windows Mail as default email client

Follow these steps to make Windows Mail the default from within itself - this is the easiest option, we'll tell you about the other, and when it might be needed, in the next section.

Side info: sometimes, simply installing another email program on your computer will automatically make it the default. If this happens, simply go through these steps once more. If you don't install anything, Windows Mail will remain the default without any issues.

Set the default mail handler from Vista's Control Panel

Depending on some settings, what programs were running in the background (etc.), Windows Mail may "say" that it is the default email application, but you still have another email program open when you click an email link. If this is the case, manually set Windows Mail as the default (or confirm that it is), using the Windows Vista Control Panel.

Click Control Panel in the start menu; type "default" in the search field (in the top right corner of the Control Panel window). Don't click on the "Change default e-mail program" link, that approach is too confusing. Click "Set your default programs" instead, and select "Windows Mail" on the left of the next screen; click on the big "Set this program as default" button on the right. Click OK to apply, and you can close the Control Panel window:

Manually set Windows Mail as Vista's default mail handler Caveat: some web browsers let you override the OS settings by setting a different program to handle email links in web pages for that browser. If this is the case, check your browser documentation to change the program handling the "mailto:" protocol.

Windows Mail Tutorial Windows Mail Windows Mail download Windows Mail for XP Windows Mail for Windows 7 Windows Mail help Setup email accounts Setup / add an email account Setup Hotmail in Windows Mail Setup Yahoo in Windows Mail Setup Gmail in Windows Mail Change email password Delete an email account Read & send emails Delete copies of sent emails Change default email text font Create an email signature Spell checking options Display all emails in plain text Mark emails as Read / Unread Forward emails inline / attached Delete / create email folders Delete/restore email messages Request read receipts Sort email messages Print email messages Customize Windows Mail Enable/disable new email sound Change how often to check for new messages / Work offline Add email sender to contacts Junk mail filters (spam) options Make WM default email client Move or rename email folders Find messages (email search) Show or hide the preview pane Show, hide, customize toolbars
Tutorial last updated on September 9, 2012
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