Thunderbird mising from the list of mailto clients win 10

[Asger-P]

Hi

I cant chose Thunderbird as my mailto client because it isn't in the list.

I have set up Thunderbird to check every time it is started, but it doesn't help.

Any ideas to what I can do ?

Thanks in advance
Best regards
Asger

[tanstaafl]

In settings click on apps, then default apps. You should be able to select Thunderbird that way. Then at the bottom of that pane there are links to "chose default apps by file type" and "chose default apps by protocol". Click on the latter to specify mailto gets mapped to Thunderbird.

I'm using Windows 10 Home x64 build 2004. The earlier build had some different menus. Running winver will tell you what build you are using.

If none of this helps in tools -> options -> advanced -> general -> system integration press the "check now" button and also check the checkbox to "always check if Thunderbird is the default email client on startup". That is the menu location under version 60. Options is organized differently in version 68 and 78 but should have the same capabilities . That should add Thunderbird as a potential choice for mailto as a side effect of registering it as the default email client.

[Asger-P]

Hi tanstaafl

Thanks for your answer.

I use Windows 10 pro 64bit 2004 build 19041.338

In settings click on apps, then default apps. You should be able to select Thunderbird
that way.

The picture I showed is taken in Settings->Apps->Defaut apps and Thunderbird is not in the list of possible
apps, there is only what you see.

Then at the bottom of that pane there are links to "chose default apps by file type" and
"chose default apps by protocol". Click on the latter to specify mailto gets mapped to Thunderbird.

That is not possible either, because it is the same four apps I can chose from, as shown in my first message,
Thunderbird is simply not appearing in these lists. it looks like this under chose by protocol:


The only place I can find Thunderbird is in the App and Function list, where it looks like this:

If none of this helps in tools -> options -> advanced -> general -> system integration
press the "check now" button and also check the checkbox to "always check if Thunderbird is the default
email client on startup".

I have done that as I wrote in my first message and it looks like this:


I have rebooted several times, but nothing seem to help.

P.s. I'm not new to this, I've been a programmer for 30 years, but Thunderbird is of course just a program
I'm using, no specialist there.

Is there a register key where I can add Thunderbird in order to make it show in the list of available apps
for the mailto protocol ?

Thanks again
Best regards
Asger

[tanstaafl]

See http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14869025 . Note that I recommended in that thread that the user install the free version of "em client" (a email client), add just one account, configure it to be the default mailto, and then edit the resulting registry keys to use Thunderbird instead of em client for mailto .

https://www.emclient.com/

[Asger-P]

and then edit the resulting registry keys to use Thunderbird instead of em client for mailto.

Yes, that hack might work.

But, I think it would be better if Thunderbird did it the right way, the way they did it on my PC,
only worked because no mailto client was registered, when Thunderbird was installed.
According to MickeySoft NO APP can hijack any protocol on windows anymore, they all
have to register as being capable to handle the protocols they can handle and by doing so
they will appear in the list of available apps, for the user to choose from.
The check that Thunderbird do when starting, to see if its the default mailto app, makes no
sense anymore.
Because some of the other apps like Edge, Chrome and Firefox are registering as mailto
client, Thunderbird is pushed away, forcing the user to make a choise, but Thunderbird isn't
in the list, at least not in mine. (my original installation is about 2 years old).
Thunderbird could easily fix this in one of their updates and make sure the program is available
as a mailto client.

When I get some extra time I will see if I can modify this example:

https://superuser.com/questions/1097511 ... windows-10

to make it work for Thunderbird.

Thanks for trying
Best regards
Asger

[tanstaafl]

I have IE, edge, chrome, vivaldi and firefox browsers on my system. Settings lists vivaldi, IE and chrome as the default handler for some protocols, but only one app appears to be listed as the handler for a specific protocol, and only Thunderbird is listed for mailto.

Firefox options in "applications" lists Thunderbird as the handler for mailto. Viewing the application details shows it uses C:\Program Files\Thunderbird 60\thunderbird.exe . I have three versions of Thunderbird installed, with version 78 registered as the mailto handler. I used regedit to search all keys for that string value and none of them were mailto related. That makes me believe that Firefox is not registering a mailto handler in the windows registry, its merely recording in its own settings who to call when it runs across mailto: in a link or somebody use file -> email link.

I don't know whats causing your problem, but I think its most likely a configuration specific bug in Thunderbird that prevents Thunderbird from being listed as a choice. That's why I suggested the hack of editing registry keys set by another email client.

Please update this thread after you modified the example you linked to.

[Asger-P]

Problem is solved:

As it turned out, there was only one key that was missing in my registry and that was the one in

RegisteredApplications

This one:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications]
"Mozilla Thunderbird"="Software\\Clients\\Mail\\Mozilla Thunderbird\\Capabilities"

The rest in:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Mozilla Thunderbird]

was there already, so I just registered Mozilla Thunderbird as shown above, that made it appear in
the default App list, where I chose it as the mailto client and now Thunderbird pops up when I
click a mailto link in my browser.

Best regards
Asger