252971 - -setDefaultMail is NOOP ("Set Program Access and Defaults")

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Andrew]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040724 Firefox/0.9.1+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040724 Firefox/0.9.1+

Using the "Set Program Access and Defaults" tool that comes with W2K SP4 and XP
SP1 you should be able to set your default web browser, e-mail client, media
player and IM client.  Thunderbird is indeed listed as an e-mail client that can
be chosen as default, but I have been unable to set Thunderbird as the default
client using this tool.

Not sure how an application registers itself with Set Program Access and
Defaults, but certainly Thunderbird should work properly with it.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Use 2000 SP4 or XP SP1 and enter the "Set Program Access and Defaults"
section of "Add/Remove Programs"
2. Select Mozilla Thunderbird as the default e-mail program.
3. Press OK.

Actual Results:  
An "applying changes" dialog appears and Thunderbird opens as a small window
with dimensions of about 50x10 pixels.  Then absolutely nothing happens until I
close that small window (cannot cancel the "applying changes" dialog with the
window open).  Thunderbird does not become the default e-mail client after
closing the small window.

Expected Results:  
Set Program Access and Defaults should have immediately made Thunderbird the
default email client.

Comment 1

[Andrew]

Thunderbird builds confirmed affected are 0.7 and the latest nightly (20040724)

Comment 2

[kurros (Wade Majors)]

Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.2 is (correctly?) setting

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Mozilla
Thunderbird\InstallInfo\ReinstallCommand"
to "%apppath%\thunderbird.exe -silent -nosplash -setDefaultMail"

And that is what gets run when you follow the steps above.

Checking the switches manually it appears we are breaking on -setDefaultMail.

Comment 3

[kurros (Wade Majors)]

From JavaScript Console:

Error: [Exception... "'Component is not available' when calling method:
[nsICmdLineHandler::chromeUrlForTask]"  nsresult: "0x80040111
(NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE)"  location: "<unknown>"  data: no]

Comment 4

[AJS]

I am seeing this same behavior in the new 1.0 release.  Similar to bug 265881.

Comment 5

[Grant Wohl]

*** Bug 281141 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Stickybit]

Thunderbird 1.0.6 also failes with the -setDefaultMail option. Thunderbird 
just shows up as the (aprox.) 10 x 50 pixels window and the default 
mailprogram isn´t set.

Comment 7

[Braden]

*** Bug 311219 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I duplicated the symptom using 1.0.6, but with 1.5RC2 and 1.6a1, things are different:
TB opens (with the default profile), and if that version isn't already the default, it puts up the "make TB default?" prompt, forcing the user to confirm what he's already done.

If the profile doesn't have an account, the first thing that gets shoved in the user's face is the Create Account Wizard, which is kinda lame.

I don't think this is desirable behavior -- see suite bug 300573, Firefox 
bug 304104 -- but at least it does get to the desired result.

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

*** Bug 325116 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Adam Guthrie]

*** Bug 348722 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

I don't believe this is still a problem as of the latest 2.0 as well as Thunderbird Trunk (e.g. 3.0).

Comment 13

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

btw: with 3.0 the command line has changed to
"<path to install dir>\uninstall\helper.exe" /SetAsDefaultAppGlobal

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Robert Strong [:rstrong] (do not email) from comment #12)
> I don't believe this is still a problem as of the latest 2.0 as well as
> Thunderbird Trunk (e.g. 3.0).

WFM current daily, on win7