Thunde Error Message in OE Attachments [Looking forThunderbird?]

I have Windows 2000 OS and have used OE successfully for years. When a friend encouraged me to try Mozilla, I installed it; however, there are 3 of us in this household with email accounts, and it combined the 3 users' address books into one when importing from OE. I decided I didn't want to deal with it and uninstalled Mozilla through the Control Panel/Add/Remove Programs. Ever since, when I get a forwarded message that displays as an attachment, I cannot open it. An "unknown program" flag appears in the attachment window. When I try to open it, this is what displays:
Windows cannot find Thunde~1.exe This program is needed for opening files of type ".
Location of thunde~1.exe: c:\

I'm sure that something from the previous install is causing this, but I've looked and can't find it. Would appreciate any direction you could give. Thanks.

 

Open up IE and go to Tools/Internet Options/Programs tab and make sure that OE is your default e-mail program.

 

I checked as MrBill said, and OE is my default email program. Thunderbird is not even listed as an option in the drop down list.

 

It doesn't give me a file extension. It just shows the quotation marks that I put in the first post. The most recent occurrence was when I forwarded a work email to home. It shows that there's an attachment by means of a paperclip as usual. I double click to open, and in the attachment box is the Windows flag (I call it) that indicates it doesn't know what program to use to open it. When I double click again and choose to open it, it shows what I listed in the first post.

 

Pete, when I checked the location you indicated, I found many file types, but no EML listed. They're in alpha order, and it goes from ELM to EPS.

 

Yes, it's OE 6.

An interesting thing happened. I followed your instructions, but in your thumbnail, there's an open envelope next to EML. Mine has that same "unknown program" flag, so of course, nothing has changed (I tried forwarding an email from work again). If I click on the Change button in the File Types window, it asks me what program I want to use to open EML files. Any idea where to go from here? Thanks for all your help today, by the way.

 

OK - did that. Then went to the work email and forwarded it to this home email. Now the "picture" in the attachment box looks different--can't really describe it other than to say it's a small turquoise blob. When I double click and choose Open, absolutely nothing happens now. It takes me back to looking at my inbox.

Did you mention before that you would forward the original post to the Mozilla forum? Perhaps it's time.

 

It is no longer a Mozilla issue if Mozilla, or Thunderbird are uninstalled.
Pete C. did a very good attempt to help, but there is no way to make things work without the program installed. There are two possibilities:
1.Right click on the attachment, or equivalent in OE, if there is a way to download the attachment. It should be downloaded with needed extention.
2. If you still get the open with Thunderbird, it may be a Registry issue. Did you uninstalled Thunderbird using the Add/Remove? If you did it properly, all references to the Registry should be gone. But, since the Profile is not removed by uninstalling the program, I would reinstall TB, make sure that it works, and then make sure that its Tools|Options do not show that it is default for mail. Close Tb, open OE, and, make sure that OE is default. If things work, you can uninstall TB.

 

Unfortunately, that's not true, as you can prove for yourself by uninstalling any program, either by way of Add/Remove, or by way of the program's own uninstall shortcut icon, if it has one.

Then, use a program like the free RegSeeker to search the Registry for references to the program you just uninstalled. I'd be very surprised if you didn't find more than several.

 

You are, completely, correct. I,always use, at least, ccleaner after an uninstall, and there are, often a lot of leftover, but I did not think that there would be enough to cause those problems. That is why my suggestions were more extensive than referring to the Add/Remove and Registry.