Outlook '07: Don't want it for email

[Jeffrey Kaplan]

Using Outlook '07 as part of Office Standard '07 in XP Pro. I use
Outlook only for its PIM functions, not for email. I don't even have
any email accounts configured in it.

I sync my handheld, currently an iPhone, to Outlook for the address
book and calendar.

The option in Outlook's Tools \ Options \ Other to "Make Outlook the
default program for email, contacts and calendar" is NOT checked. The
system Control Panel \ Internet Options \ Programs: "Email" setting is
NOT set to Outlook, it has my preferred email client selected. In my
preferred email client's own settings, it IS set to be the default
client for email. So far as I can tell, all of my settings are correct
for the behavior I want: I want my preferred email client to load, if
it's not already running, and open an email composition window
addressed to the recipient if I click a Mailto link or otherwise use a
"send email" command.

Yet when I do just that, it only works if my email client is already
open. If it's not already running, I instead get an error message
telling me that the operation could not be performed because the email
client is not properly configured. Clicking OK on that and I get an
email composition window from Outlook.

What is broken here, and how do I fix it?

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

[reading] "Declaration of War... the short form." (President Widmark,
"Buckaroo Banzai")

 

[Gordon]

Using Outlook '07 as part of Office Standard '07 in XP Pro. I use
Outlook only for its PIM functions, not for email. I don't even have
any email accounts configured in it.

I sync my handheld, currently an iPhone, to Outlook for the address
book and calendar.

The option in Outlook's Tools \ Options \ Other to "Make Outlook the
default program for email, contacts and calendar" is NOT checked. The
system Control Panel \ Internet Options \ Programs: "Email" setting is
NOT set to Outlook, it has my preferred email client selected. In my
preferred email client's own settings, it IS set to be the default
client for email. So far as I can tell, all of my settings are correct
for the behavior I want: I want my preferred email client to load, if
it's not already running, and open an email composition window
addressed to the recipient if I click a Mailto link or otherwise use a
"send email" command.

Yet when I do just that, it only works if my email client is already
open. If it's not already running, I instead get an error message
telling me that the operation could not be performed because the email
client is not properly configured. Clicking OK on that and I get an
email composition window from Outlook.

What is broken here, and how do I fix it?

Depends on what your "preferred email client" is - I notice you have failed
to tell us....

 

[Jeffrey Kaplan]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:

Depends on what your "preferred email client" is - I notice you have failed
to tell us....

Because it is, or should be, irrelevant. I did say that it is set
properly to be the default, but Windows is only honoring that while my
mail client is running.

My preferred mail client is Agent.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort, and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy." - Dr. Martin Luther King

 

[Gordon]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:


Because it is, or should be, irrelevant. I did say that it is set
properly to be the default, but Windows is only honoring that while my
mail client is running.

My preferred mail client is Agent.

And does Agent use Simple MAPI?

 

[Jeffrey Kaplan]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:

And does Agent use Simple MAPI?

Agent does not support MAPI at all. Which is irrelevant to the
problem.

I'm not talking about using "File \ Send As Email" or anything like
that. I'm talking about MAILTO links. These are IP URLs. Agent is
set to be the default client in itself and in Windows' Internet
Options. Outlook is NOT set to be the default client for anything. Yet
when Agent is not running, Windows insists on trying to launch Outlook
for MAILTO links.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like
you like to be liked yourself." George W. Bush puts an interesting
twist on Jesus Christ's proverb: "Love thy neighbor." (Quote is from
the Financial Times)

 

[Gordon]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:


Agent does not support MAPI at all. Which is irrelevant to the
problem.

I'm not talking about using "File \ Send As Email" or anything like
that. I'm talking about MAILTO links. These are IP URLs. Agent is
set to be the default client in itself and in Windows' Internet
Options. Outlook is NOT set to be the default client for anything. Yet
when Agent is not running, Windows insists on trying to launch Outlook
for MAILTO links.

I think you might find that Mailto links DO need Simple MAPI.....

 

[Jeffrey Kaplan]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:

I think you might find that Mailto links DO need Simple MAPI.....

Which does not address the problem. What is broken that Windows keeps
launching Outlook for a Mailto link when the configuration of
everything involved says that Outlook IS NOT MY MAIL CLIENT.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"The Superior Person's Book Of Words", by Peter Bowler: ATAXY:
Disturbance of bodily functions, especially that of motion. The
interest in this word lies largely in the fact that it is pronounced
exactly the same as "a taxi." The serious lexicologist should have at
his command as many as possible such words, which permit the quiet
enjoyment of many a deliberate ambiguity, in friendly or unfriendly
discourse.

 

[Gordon]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:


Which does not address the problem. What is broken that Windows keeps
launching Outlook for a Mailto link when the configuration of
everything involved says that Outlook IS NOT MY MAIL CLIENT.

<sigh> If it is correct in what I said, that MAILTO links need simple MAPI
(and I may be wrong on this) then it doesn't matter WHAT email client is set
as default, if that email client doesn't use Simple MAPI. Use a bit of
logic.

And [please change your sig - RFC says a max of FOUR lines.

Thank you.

 

[Jeffrey Kaplan]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Gordon said:

<sigh> If it is correct in what I said, that MAILTO links need simple MAPI
(and I may be wrong on this) then it doesn't matter WHAT email client is set
as default, if that email client doesn't use Simple MAPI. Use a bit of
logic.

You want logic? Ok... if it were indeed MAPI dependant, then Agent
would not be able to handle the MAILTO links at all.

BTW, last night I fixed the symptom (Agent now properly launches on a
MAILTO link) by unsetting and resetting everything. But whatever
caused it to break in the first place will likely strike again.

IOW, I fully expect the problem to come back at some point. So I still
want to know what broke and how to fix the actual problem, rather than
just the symptom.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

Peter's Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord, #221.
My force-field generators will be located inside the shield they
generate.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

BTW, last night I fixed the symptom (Agent now properly launches on a
MAILTO link) by unsetting and resetting everything. But whatever
caused it to break in the first place will likely strike again.

IOW, I fully expect the problem to come back at some point. So I still
want to know what broke and how to fix the actual problem, rather than
just the symptom.

How did you do this? Did you use the Folder Options setttings to specify
what the Open action for the Mailto file type is?

 

[Jeffrey Kaplan]

Previously on microsoft.public.outlook.general, Brian Tillman [MVP -
Outlook] said:

How did you do this?

Unset the options in Agent. Change the options in Windows's Internet
Options \ Programs to anything other than Agent. Re-set the options in
Agent. Re-set the options in Internet Options \ Programs.

Did you use the Folder Options setttings to specify
what the Open action for the Mailto file type is?

Ahh... thank you. Since these are URLs, I didn't think to look in the
system File Types listing. That was set to use Outlook. I just
changed it to point to Agent instead. Hopefully, that is the cure I'm
looking for. Thanks again.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"Do you like it?" "It beats a kick in the teeth." (Col. Ari Ben Zayn
and Officer Lou Welch, B5 "Eyes")