Making Gmail your default email program for all the browsers will mean that whenever you click on any email address (which typically has a “mailto:” protocol) in any browser, your Gmail account will open with a compose window in the browser. This will allow you to send the mail to the email address clicked using your Gmail. It is possible to make Gmail your default email program for all the browsers, including Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.
Normally, when you click on an email link in any browser, your default desktop email client such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird is automatically opened. But, there are many people who don’t use any desktop email clients and access their email directly in the browser. However, even in their case, clicking on an email link in a browser will open their default email client such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird automatically; and it may also show an error message since usually in such a case the desktop email client might not have been configured or set up with an email address. You may be desirous to avoid such situations and would like that when you click on an email link in a browser, instead of opening your desktop email program like Outlook Express, your online email account such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail or AOL, etc., should directly be opened in the browser so that your mail to that email address could go from such email account. This is possible if you can make your desired email program to be your default email program on your computer. This article explains how to do it for Gmail [Note: If you want to make Yahoo! Mail as your default email program, then read How to make Yahoo! Mail your default Windows email program].
In an earlier article Gmail as default email program in Firefox with Google Toolbar, I have already explained as to how to make Gmail your default email program in Firefox browser using Google Toolbar. However, that method works only for Firefox browser, and it will not work in other browsers such as IE or Google Chrome. This means that in these other browsers if you click on an email address, still your Outlook Express or Thunderbird may be opened instead of opening Gmail.
In this article, I’ll explain how can Gmail be made the default email program for all the browsers, and not just the Firefox browser. Moreover, this method will work for Windows O.S. as also for the Mac O.S.
This method involves downloading and installing Gmail Notifier from Google on your computer. In addition to making Gmail as your default email program, Gmail Notifier will also help you further as it alerts you when you have new Gmail messages by displaying an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have any unread Gmail messages. It also shows subjects, senders and snippets of your newly arrived Gmail from its icon in the system tray, all without your having to open a web browser.
(1) Gmail as default email program for all browsers in Windows O.S.:
To make Gmail your default email in Windows, proceed as under:
You can also cross-check this in the following manner (and, this can also be used as an alternative method if the above method did not work for you):
It may be pointed out that at a later stage, if you feel that you do not want to use Gmail as your default email program, you can simply uncheck the above check-box.
(2) Gmail as default email program for all browsers in Mac O.S.:
On the Mac O.S., to make Gmail as your default email program, proceed as under:
Once you have made Gmail as your default mail on your computer, Gmail compose mail window will open in your browser whenever you click on any email link in a web page in any of your browsers.
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I was looking for this tip but did not search for it. Now I get it here when I was looking for something else. It has helped me save my time to open Gmail manually whenever I want to send email through a link. thx.
doesn’t work–if u click a mailto link on web u get a google error page
Can you please specify the details, which browser, and what is the error message. There appears to be some problem specific to your computer; perhaps some settings are not correct. I can try to suggest the solution if you provide some more details. This method has been found to be working successfully for almost everybody.
You can also use the free utility gmailbydefault from www .zedlan .com
no disrespect intended (honestly). the author is obviously quite intelligent, but was heavy on the bloviating.
I tried this and it still launches Outlook.
Great article…..Thanks Lou