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When I clicked a mailto: link in a web page the following page appeared. How would I make it open in Gmail instead? I am using Windows 7.
How to make mailto: links open in Gmail instead of Outlook
Answers
8
If you are using the latest version of Chrome:
Go to Gmail, and you should see an icon in the address bar that looks like two overlapping diamonds (see the Chrome support link here). If you click the icon and select "Use Gmail," Gmail will be used to handle your mailto: links in the future.
If you do not see the two diamonds, you may need to double-check that handlers are enabled. You can enable them by going to Chrome settings --> Show advanced settings... --> Privacy section, Content settings... --> and look under handlers to make sure you have "Allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols" selected (see screenshot below).
Ryan
Posted 2012-10-14T04:35:44.307
Reputation: 3 179
1
So based on your tags Google Chrome appears to be your web browser, go to the Google Webstore and download Send From Gmail (By Google) which will make GMail your default email application. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-from-gmail-by-google/pgphcomnlaojlmmcjmiddhdapjpbgeoc
For Firefox users, go to Tools in the Menu Bar, then Options, the Applications tab, then look for the Mailto: and change the dropdown menu to "Use Gmail"
j_bombay
Posted 2012-10-14T04:35:44.307
Reputation: 640
1
Working as of April, 2019. Chrome 73.
Let Gmail handle Mailto links:
Open Chrome -> Settings
- Click Content settings under Privacy and security
- Click Handlers
- Switch ON the Ask protocol
- Open Gmail in a new tab
- Click the Protocol Handler icon and allow Gmail to open all email links
Select Chrome as default email client
Done!
Click on a mailto: link, Gmail will open a new email window.
@LTR - Thank you for reporting old answer was no longer working.
Credit source: How to Set Gmail as Your Browser's Default Email Client for Mailto Links
Leo Gurdian
Posted 2012-10-14T04:35:44.307
Reputation: 109
Thanks, your mailto fix worked! Although now new email windows open using my work email (google apps) instead of my personal email. Any chance you know how I might change default email address for mailto links? – samthebrand – 2016-05-13T12:36:56.940
@samthebrand, I'm glad it helped. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to 'subscribe' the link handler to an specific account. It will use whichever account you're logged in with on the default browser. You could use a separate browser and log in with the other account. Then simply set the default browser that you want links to be handled with. - Good luck! – Leo Gurdian – 2016-05-14T04:12:35.930
1This doesn't work as of 2019, with Windows 10 and Chrome 73.0. – LTR – 2019-04-02T09:03:42.820
0
You can just create a link like the following and it will attempt to open Gmail and create a new message. You can specify "to" and "subject" and even the "message"
<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?view=cm&fs=1&to=toemail@email.com&su=hello world" target="_blank">
Arajay
Posted 2012-10-14T04:35:44.307
Reputation: 19
1It will attempt to open Gmail is not an answer. Also OP is asking about mailto links which are on contact forms. – pun – 2015-12-09T23:33:20.017
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You can also search "file type" in the windows search box, and select change the file type associated with a file extension. Then scroll down to MAILTO. Double click on it and select chrome.
Benjamin Crouzier
Posted 2012-10-14T04:35:44.307
Reputation: 4 288
I think that is the "better start" since it works as well with email links embedded in word docs or PDFs. However it's only the first half of the solution: on my laptop it just switches to Chrome. What's next ? – Patrick Honorez – 2015-08-15T13:50:49.613
-1
Gmail Notifier is a better solution for all browsers.
Here is answer from Google:
http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10966
Hans Chen
Posted 2012-10-14T04:35:44.307
Reputation: 409
1GMail Notifier is no longer supported. – Leo Gurdian – 2015-06-12T21:42:18.337
This answer also works on OSX Mavericks, which is awesome for me :) – alengel – 2015-12-03T15:02:57.957
This didn't work for me. – samthebrand – 2016-05-13T12:37:31.117
This doesn't work as of 2019, with Windows 10 and Chrome 73.0. The icon with the two overlapping diamonds doesn't exist anymore, and the feature is not mentioned in the Chrome docs anymore. – LTR – 2019-04-02T09:04:18.407
This won't always show (e.g. if a previous user selected and then disabled this), so a more general solution would be better. – tog22 – 2014-06-11T07:35:46.247