260265 - mailto: link improperly launches Outlook Express instead of Mozilla Mail.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 202497

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Bryce Mozilla Nesbitt]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10

This report is made to confirm and reopen the issue mentioned in Bug #245539 .

On Windows XP and Windows 2000, clicking on a mailto: link brings up outlook
express, which then says "would you like to make outlook express your default
email client".

This may be Microsoft's bug, but it is Firefox's problem.  It is a major
handicap to bring up the wrong email client.  I propose that Firefox hack in a fix.

Tested on:
Browser: Firefox 1.0PR1
OS: Windows 2000 Professional, fully patched
Default E-Mail in Control Panel->Internet Options: Mozilla Mail

From "Start->Run..." entering "mailto:" also brings up Outlook Express.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

We don't need to hack in a fix, you just need to make sure the correct mail
client is set in the OS.  We just pass the mailto: URL to windows, and that's
all we should do.  We are not going to try to do some sort of hacky solution,
when most users are unaffected by this.  I do not have this problem on two XP
and one 2000 machine, so it isn't some generic bug.

Filing another bug because the first one was marked INVALID is pretty much
ignoring what was said in the first bug.

Comment 2

[Bryce Mozilla Nesbitt]

You have no idea if "most" users are unaffected by this.

The correct email client clearly IS set in the OS.

Additional data:
   Tools->Read Mail loads the proper email client.
   Tools->New Message loads the wrong one.
   Clicking on a mailto: lionk loads the wrong client.

So what's different about two neigboring menu items (in Firefox tools menu)
launch email clients?

IE, Opera and Mozilla get it right in all cases (on the SAME machine).

Comment 3

[Bryce Mozilla Nesbitt]

This is a frequently reported problem:

Bug #245539 INVA mailto: link opens Outlook Express not my email client
Bug #254927 INVA Default mail client not honored when clicking a mailto: l...
Bug #260265 WONT Firefox email mailto: link improperly launches Outlook Ex...
Bug #241381 INVA e-mail client does not open when clicking a mailto: link ...
Bug #258753 INVA Firebird doesn't open default mail application when click...

This bug seriously undermines my enjoyment of Firefox.  That's why I'm reporting it.

At the very least if you don't want to see new bug reports, give us victims of
the problem a open bug report to find & vote for.

Comment 4

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

We're not in the business of leaving bugs open that we have no intention of
"fixing."  Application protocol handlers work fine, there's no bug in XP/2000,
your mail app is busted.  That's the simple truth.

Despite Bugzilla not being intended for "support" I'm just going to explain this
here, so that future bug reports can at least look here for the truth.

If you want to vote for a bug to get fixed, its Bug 202497, which is about
fixing Mozilla Mail to do what the OS API _requires_. 
http://texturizer.net/firefox/faq.html#email has the manual workaround for the
MozMail bug noted above.  

Also, please note that Thunderbird, Eudora, OE, Outlook, and other email apps
all seem to use the OS standard (since at least Win98) properly.  Lotus Notes
didn't do it, when done via Internet Options, but that may be by design.

Morphing summary to what the bug really is, marking as a dupe of the real bug.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 202497 ***