Send to does nothing in explorer

[slickrcbd]

I can't remember the last time I used this feature of Windows 7 as I haven't used it regularly since 2013, but I just tried to e-mail a file to a friend by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer and choosing "send to"->"mail recipient". However nothing happened.
I checked the "set your default programs" and "associate a file type or protocol with a program" under "default programs" and I am pretty sure Thunderbird is set for everything related to e-mail (though I might have missed something).
I'm using a standard account, so I cannot look under "set program access and computer defaults" without logging out and logging back in with the admin account (I am the admin, but I use a different, standard account for 99.9% of my activities, using elevation as needed).
Another [standard] user on the computer uses Outlook (as she is not computer literate and has instructions for doing certain things with Outlook and it was not worth the argument since I have copies of Outlook 2003 and 2007 available), so I wouldn't want to make a global change anyways.

Any idea what to check to get send-to working? I am sure Thunderbird is open when I tried it, and yes, I know alternate ways such as just dragging and dropping the file onto an open e-mail, which is how I normally do things..
I have no idea how long it has been broken. Possibly several years, versions, restore points, and updates (both Windows and Thunderbird).

[tanstaafl]

If that occurred with a browser that would be due to it using the default mailto setting, which is separate from the setting to specify the default email client. I'm not certain which windows explorer uses. I hate the ask the obvious, but did you try going to "Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General" and select "Use Thunderbird as the default mail application"? Every other method I'm aware of (for windows 7) requires using the control panel or editing keys in the windows registry. I know about a DefaultMail utility but that is only for XP.

What is the problem with temporarily elevating your privileges for the account you want to fix? See https://superuser.com/questions/663308/ ... inistrator for how to run the control panel as a admin.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Default_mail_client
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Changing_the_ ... in_Firefox

[morat]

Similar thread: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3033849

[tanstaafl]

As an experiment I tried "send to -> mail recipient" on my Windows 10 system, in File Explorer. It did nothing. Thunderbird is set as the default email app.

https://www.outlook-tips.net/tips/fix-s ... -explorer/ implies that context menu uses SimpleMAPI. I don't have a good way to test SimpleMAPI since I don't have any win32 Office apps and the SimpleMAPI console program in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... pplication requires you to logon onto a messaging system before issuing any commands. That seems to require a SimpleMAPI profile for Thunderbird, which I don't know how to create. Adding an account in "Email and Apps accounts" didn't create one. Neither did setting Thunderbird as the default mail app.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ng-outlook had a link for a profiler program that looks like it would create a SimpleMAPI profile, but no executable. "When you call the MAPILogonEx function without specifying a profile and by setting the MAPI_LOGON_UI flag, MAPI displays the profile creation wizard if no profiles are on the computer. If profiles exist, MAPI displays the Choose Profile dialog box. Click New to start the profile creation wizard." I don't have time to download/install Visual Studio right now.

[tanstaafl]

I tried morat's vbs program after changing the path to C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe , and it worked. That seems to be a script to spawn a process using Thunderbird's command line arguments. It provides a different way to use "send to", which would be a good workaround for you. Unfortunately it doesn't address why the existing method (send to -> mail recipient) doesn't work.

[slickrcbd]

What is the problem with temporarily elevating your privileges for the account you want to fix? See https://superuser.com/questions/663308/ ... inistrator for how to run the control panel as a admin.

Mostly because my experience with doing that is that it [at least partially] acts as if I had logged out and logged in as the administrator, and the changes either only affect the administrator account I do not use for actually using the computer or it makes a global change and overrides ALL other users until they reset their own preferences. I am talking in general terms about using the elevation trick, rather than for this specific purpose.
Drives me nuts with a program called FileTypesMan, since FileTypesMan requires elevation, and half the time the changes I make only affect my admin account when I'm trying to change my personal account.

Fixing it for the admin account but not the limited account doesn't help me, since I have NEVER used that feature with the admin account. Thunderbird isn't even set up properly with an e-mail address on the admin account.( Partially for security purposes, although that is more a legacy thing as I formed the habit with XP over 15 years ago (or ~ten, depending on if we are talking about when I switched to T-bird or when I switched to XP) and UAC kinda makes it partially obsolete. But let's not derail the thread on a tangent about security practices).

[sfhowes]

The recommended method for fixing this problem in Windows 7 is to install the MS Visual Studio 2015 runtime library, as mentioned in the 'Known Issues' section of the TB 52 release notes:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbi ... easenotes/

[slickrcbd]

Interesting, I've only got the VS runtime libraries up to 2012. Seems I failed to keep up with those, though I haven't had a need until now.