2
Whenever I click on anything that has a @ symbol in browser, Word, Excel, or anywhere else, Windows launches Mail app. I do not want it to launch anything. I uninstalled the Mail app, so now Windows launches a table asking me which program to use to open that link. I do not want to use any program, I just want Windows to ignore me clicking on email addresses. How do I do that?
Justinas Rubinovas
Posted 2019-12-06T19:33:55.117
Reputation: 21
1
You probably have set Word to automatically detect and convert text to hyperlinks,
so it indeed converted text containing @ to hyper-links.
To undo this option:
Take a backup of the document before starting on the above.
Excel is a particularly difficult case, because it follows a hyperlink with a simple click, unlike Word that only does it for Ctrl+Click. This makes it quite frustrating to edit a cell that contains a hyperlink.
You will find various methods for editing such fields and avoiding activating the hyperlink in the post How to stop Excel following hyperlinks when I click on them?
harrymc
Posted 2019-12-06T19:33:55.117
Reputation: 306 093
1
Someone has to make an app that handles the mailto protocol. The app must not do anything (like silently open and close itself).
You can test the reasoning in PowerShell:
(Set-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\mailto\Us
erChoice' -Name ProgId).ProgID
When it asks for a value, leave it blank.
Now Windows will either reset it on its own or ask you which app you want.
More convincingly, if you go into regedit and delete the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\mailto\UserChoice node, Windows will eventually notice its gone and recreate it.
Louis
Posted 2019-12-06T19:33:55.117
Reputation: 18 859
0
I can only imagine that you are clicking on the @ to copy some text around that. If so, I basically start the mouse select from before the link and slide over the "@" area, then copy, then edit that elsewhere as I use it. Hopefully there is at least a space between email addresses where you can start your select.
If this isn't the use case, please clarify.
Hans Schulze
Posted 2019-12-06T19:33:55.117
Reputation: 11
That is sometimes the case, but most of the times, it isn't. I just need my PC to ignore these links altogether. What you suggested is sometimes very inconvenient. For example, I need to double-click a word that as the "@" symbol in it, rather than doing the slide selection. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-06T19:51:46.820
1You don’t indicate what application these links appear in, however, it’s the application that’s making them into links that Windows is treating as a mailto link. – Ramhound – 2019-12-06T20:01:11.607
This isn't just on Word, but on dozens of other applications. And in most cases, I do need them as hyperlinks. I just don't need them to be opened on this particular PC. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-06T20:18:58.093
So disable the functionality within the application on that PC? – Ramhound – 2019-12-06T20:48:36.200
Most applications do not have an option to disable it... But it still depend on Windows as to which mail application to launch - and I want to tell Windows to ignore this request when it receives it from any application. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-07T07:40:05.950
This isn't just on Word, but on dozens of other applications. And in most cases, I do need them as hyperlinks. I just don't need them to be opened on this particular PC. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-06T20:18:55.033
Each application may have its options - this isn't a Windows settings. Office apps have it in Options > Proofing, but you need to do them one by one. A global possibility is that you might possibly have installed a utility that does it, which you can test by booting into Safe mode to disable it. – harrymc – 2019-12-06T20:23:30.740
In any case, you need Ctrl+Click to follow a link, just a click shouldn't be enough. – harrymc – 2019-12-06T20:27:24.347
Sir, I believe you misunderstand. Each application has options to turn the words with "@" symbol into hyperlinks or not, but clicking on such links is a Windows "mailto" protocol, which I want to disable. This behavior isn't application-dependent. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-06T20:27:33.730
This will only be automatic in the browser. A simple click shouldn't be enough in desktop apps. – harrymc – 2019-12-06T20:29:44.203
1Well, but it is. In Excel, for example, a simple click is enough to launch Mail app. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-06T20:36:16.943
Verified: Does not happen in Word, but does happen in Excel. I added in my answer a link to a useful post, but this requires some discipline when working in Excel. – harrymc – 2019-12-06T20:50:22.983
I checked out that link, but what these people are suggesting are workarounds, not a solution. I need a solution. Keep the hyperlinks, but make the program ignore them when clicked. Just like it's handled in Word. – Justinas Rubinovas – 2019-12-07T07:43:11.323
So would many other people, but Microsoft doesn't listen. Microsoft itself suggests only the methods of the right-click or the long click.
– harrymc – 2019-12-07T09:26:20.747