1921459 - Thunderbird hijacks default mail client

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/129.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Tried uninstalling, reinstalling, changing windows email protocol to outlook,
Uninstalled, reinstalled, changed windows email protocol to outlook, started Thunderbird

Actual results:

Thunderbird steals default email client function.

Expected results:

I should be able to have Outlook as my default and use Thunderbird only when I want to.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Tried uninstalling, reinstalling, changing windows email protocol to outlook,

Is that your full steps to reproduce? Because if your steps don't include starting Thunderbird then the issue must be with the Windows OS, not Thunderbird.

Comment 2

[LB]

Yes, I started Thunderbird.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Yes, I started Thunderbird.

And when you started Thunderbird, neither Windows nor Thunderbird prompted you about changing the default?

Comment 4

[LB]

Thunderbird did prompt me and I said no, I don't want Thunderbird to be my default email client.

Comment 5

[Anje]

This is really a question that should have been asked in the Support Forum.
I just used google and second to top search result was to a question I previously answered 6 years ago.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1199344

If you want to use eg: Outlook as default when right-click on a file and select "Send to" "Mail Recipient"
Please check registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\Mail
'Start' > Run > type regedit
Locate this registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\Mail
on right side double click on 'Default'
Enter Microsoft Outlook in 'Value Data'

If required you could also do the same for:
Registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail

I've also had times when people want Thunderbird to open but are getting a previously used email client eg: outlook, mail
https://support.mozilla.org/si/questions/1326393
Solution is the same except you enter Mozilla Thunderbird in the 'Value Data'

Setting the Windows OS default MAILTO option does not seem update that particular registry.
Age old issue in Windows OS.

Also make sure this is set up:
In Windows OS set up Outlook as the default email option.
In Thunderbird - switch off the auto check request.
Setting > General
uncheck the checkbox 'Always check to see if Thunderbird is the default email client on start up'

Comment 6

[LB]

I have no "Clients" folder under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software.
I snipped a picture of the regedit screen shot, but I can't paste it here.

Comment 7

[LB]

In the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail the default does say Microsoft Outlook, but still when I use the DoCmd.SendObject acSendReport function in Microsoft Access, still the Thunderbird client intercepts the email instead of it popping up in Outlook

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to LB from comment #7)

In the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail the default does say Microsoft Outlook

Thanks for that detail.

when I use the DoCmd.SendObject acSendReport function in Microsoft Access, still the Thunderbird client intercepts the email instead of it popping up in Outlook.

Does https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/windowsmapi/mapi32-dll-stub-registry-settings help?

That's likely using MAPI.

Comment 9

[Anje]

(In reply to LB from comment #6)

I have no "Clients" folder under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software.
I snipped a picture of the regedit screen shot, but I can't paste it here.

You can add the image file - at the top - above the first comment, you should see 'Attachments'. If there is a > chevron - click on it and you will see a 'Attach New File' button.