Setting programs as Default for opening files make it very easy to open files without going through the process of specifying which program to use. However, it can be a bit tricky to set up a default Email Client and it gets worse with Windows 8, as it will set its built-in Mail app as Default Email client.
Not many people are fan of Windows 8 Mail app and the fact that it is set by default, it just gets more annoying. But, don’t worry you can always change your default email client in both Windows 7 and 8.
You will have to access the “Default Programs” feature of Windows to the change Default email client and open mailto links with it. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how you can change your default email client in Windows.
Note: This tutorial is written using Windows 7, the instructions for Windows 8 are also same with minor visual changes.
Set Default Email Client
Before starting, you should at least have more than one email client to be able to change between them. If you don’t already have another email client, then download it first. There are many reliable Email clients, some popular ones include, Outlook, Postbox and Thunderbird.
Now you need to open Windows “Default Programs”, click on the Start menu and from there, click on “Control Panel”.
In Control Panel, click on “Programs” Category. On the next page you will see the “Default Programs” option, click on it.
You will see different options to set default programs for specific files. To look for the option to change default email client, click on “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”.
After a short delay, you will see all the extensions and Protocols with default program that opens them located under the column “Current Default”.
There will be a lot of extensions and protocols and you need to find “MAILTO” protocol between them. To easily find the protocol, click on any of the program and then press the “M” key on your keyboard. This will directly filter you to “MAILTO” option.
You will be able to see the current Email Client to open mailto links under the “Current Default” column. In our case, it is “Microsoft Office Outlook”, to change it, we can double-click on it or select it and then click on “Change program” located at the top right corner of the window.
You will see all the currently installed Email clients on your PC in a new window. Just click on the email client which you would like to use and click on “OK”.
The Page will start loading again and after a short delay your default email client will be changed and you can see it under the “Current Default” column. In our case, we have set our default email client to Thunderbird.
If you have any questions or know any other easy method to change default email client, let us know in the comments below.