Cannot Set Default Mail Application

I am currently using Thunderbird 1.0. My operating system is Windows 98SE (upgraded from Win 98). My connection is DSL.

My problem is this: When I go into Tools > Options and click the radio button to make Thunderbird my default mail application I get an error. The messages states that I cannot set this application as default as a regestry key value cannot be set -- I should contact my administrator to see if I have write privs.

There is no administrator, it's a stand alone machine. It doesn't matter which mail application I try to set as default, Mozilla 18a, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird - I get this same error message.

It should be noted that I have no difficulty setting default news application or default browser.

I recall this being discussed before. I appologize for any redundancy.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Brian1951 !

Brian,

There are several places to check in order to see if all settings are correct.

Ensure that neither Mozilla or IE have taken over as Default Mail Client. Mozilla will do that.

Check in Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options
Click on the Programs Tab
Is Mozilla Thunderbird listed for email?

In the Registry
Start | Run
Type: regedit
Do you have this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mailto\shell\open\command

If so, is this shown for Default:
C:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\THUNDE~1.EXE -compose %1

Let us know what you find.

Ramona

 

Ramona,

I checked and everything checks out. Mozilla Thunderbird is listed in Internet Options > Programs Tab as the email application.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\mailto\shell\open\command has C:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~2\THUNDE~1.EXE -compose %1

Yet in the application in the Tools > Options menu only the default news option is selected the default mail radio button is not. When I tried to click it that's when the error message is generated.

It seems that communication between the os and mail clients is not complete. I can set any mail application as default from IE Internet Options > Programs Tab. But if I try to set one from the application's default mail option I get the same error message.

Between Firefox and Thunderbird there is cooperation; I can call TB from Firefox. But, If I try to use the mailto functionality of Ulead Photoimpact or WordPerfect they don't see the default mail application and sometimes they crash.

 

You may want to try the Launchy extention
But, it seems that something else may not only be default, but does not want to surrender it, in spite of what you see. I have TB1.0 default, and when I uninstalled it, and went to TB1.02, I found that it had lost the default, which was taken, no question asked by Mozilla. But, all I had to do was to go to TB, and place a check mark.
I remember having some "permission" problem in Win98, but I never figure that one out. If you use 1.0, uninstall it, and install 1.02. It will find the mail, and see how that goes.

 

Thanks. But part of my problem is lost functionality of "Send To" menu items in WordPerfect, Ulead Photo Impact, etc. These apps depend on default mail settings so they can foward/insert or attach items to email of the default mail app. I don't need to launch TB or some other mail app from Firefox. I can launch TB from Firefox.

It's like Thunderbird is only half recognized as default. I rather think that something else is askew in the registry or one of the programs used to designate a mail application as default.

I gotta thank everyone for their responses so far. I came here from Usenet Newsgroups dealing with Windows and response time isn't nearly as lively as it is in this forum. Keep those suggestions comming. We'll hit the nail on the head and "git 'er done ".

 

Have you tried to set any other mail client as default, and do they work. I don't know what is your past history, but you must be comparing TB with something which worked. This is one of those weird ones. May be a new profile.
I am using an old profile, which is using the Modern Theme. And this crazy thing has only View, Go and Bookmarks in the Menu bar. I would not be able to do anything with the preferences, although everything else works.

 

I get the same error message with other mail apps as well. If I open Outlook Express > Tools > General and try to make OE Default mail. It goes through the motions and when I click OK When I look in Control Panel > Internet Options > Programs OE appears as default. If I reopen the Tools > General menu OE tells me it is NOT default.

This is essentially what happens with any other mail app when I try to make it default. In addition I get this error message: "mail application could not be set as the default mail application because a registry key could not be updated. Verify with your system administrator that you have write access to your system registry and then try again. "

In addition to Outlook Express and Thunderbird 1.0, I have Mozilla 1.8a. I very rarely use OE. Before installing TB Mozilla 1.8a was my default browser and mail application.

 

This is my last guess. First of all, I did a search, and, found too many links of problems like yours to list. They were mostly for Outlook or Outllok Express, so there would seem to be something broken with your OS. How were things with Win98? Or to put it in another way, has this happened, or noticed with 98SE?
I saw suggestions of entering a registry patch, very detailed for Outlook Express, but of questionable help with TB. Having XP, I cannot tell you where to look for.

 

Thanks. I too have found many different listings in Windows KB. It was confusing to me at best. We are agreed something is broken in my OS.

I've never used OE although I have it on my machine. Things worked fine under Win 98. I was using Mozilla 1.6 at the time. Everything went smoothly when I upgraded to Windows 98SE inorder to utilize an external USB 2.x drive.

Things started getting hinky several weeks after I uninstalled Mozilla 1.6 and installed Mozilla 1.7. It was suggested at the Netscape/Mozilla Usenet Newsgroup that I try uninstalling and reinstalling Moz 1.7 to regain the lost functionality. I did this and after three uninstall / reinstalls I couldn't get Mozilla to launch. I moved on to Mozilla 1.8a and couldn't make that default either. I've used it for a while even though I can't send my photos as attachements from within Ulead Photoimpact. I just attached the file from within Mozilla Mail without benefit of the additional jpg compression provided by Photoimpact. Somewhere along the way I came across the registry Client\Mail keys. They were not synchronized. Local_Machine had one application while Current_User had a different one. I set both Client\Mail keys to Mozilla. This seemed to partially fix things so I can make mail application default settings using IE Tools\Internet Options\Programs without getting the error message cited in the previous post.

When I learned that the Mozilla Foundation is moving away from Mozilla to put all their development resources behind FireFox/Thunderbird...I installed these.

What has remained consistant throughout is the inability to set a mail application as default from within any given mail application. The 'registry key cannot be updated...' error message is raised. It would seem that whatever changes that are made using Internet Options\Programs are not complete.

I appreciate your efforts. Maybe someone reading this will pick up the ball and run with it.



Note: I haven't upgraded to XP because the os costs so much and also, I have an older machine, and some older aps like WP 8.x which XP she no like.

 

Brian1951

In your Windows Explorer, do you have two mozilla directories under C:\Program Files? I think maybe with all your installations of Mozilla and Firefox, you may have some old stuff in there.

Do you have only the C: Drive or do you have other partitions?

I have Firefox and Thunderbird installed on D:\Program Files\Firefox and Thunderbird respectively. So my mailto is

"D:\PROGRA~1\THUNDE~1\THUNDE~1.EXE -compose %1 "

is yours and is the reason I ask if you have two Mozilla folders.

 

Brian,
I installed my WP8 on my WinXP, setting the compatibility to Win98.
I have no problem at all with it. But, if I want to send anything it does not seem to know that there is such thing as a default mail, higher than 4.x. But it lists the different options to File|Send with, and thunderbird.exe is one of them.
however, the problems begin immediately. It will not open TB, it will open NS7.2, and gets totall confused with NS4.8. On the other hand, both Open Office 1.1.4 and Microsoft Works 6.0 will open the default mail, and attach the document as a respective document. So, I may be OS incompatibily, but WP8 does not work as I had set it up.

 

My drive is not devided into logical drives or partitions. There is only C: Yes I have three folders that show as MOZILL~1 etc. Mozilla directories under C:\Program Files are as follows Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird and Mozilla.org. The first two are self explicatory. The last one is where my installation of Mozilla 1.8a resides.

As such none of these directories contains anything from a previous installation.

 

There is one more registry entry to check:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command]
@= "C:\\PROGRA~1\\MOZILL~2\\THUNDE~1.EXE -compose %1 "

I use WinXp so someone using Win 98 might chime in here because what I see could be different.

How about your Folder options? Do you have the URL:Mailto set to Thunderbird?

 

Bill,

The Registry Key is the same for Windows 98SE.

Ramona

 

It's Fixed, Sorta​

I tried going to Safe Mode and setting Default Mail for Thunderbird and it worked! No error messages nothing, it worked! Now the only question is which application is blocking Default Mail from being set during normal mode? I don't know how I'll find that out, so I guess I'll be happy with this workaround.