Outlook steals mail-handler status

[David Mayerovitch]

I'm running Outlook 2003 on Windows XP Home, SP2.

I use Outlook Express 6.0 as my mail program and in the OE options I set it
to be the default mail handler. It works correctly, but only for a time.

Every few days I discover, after clicking on a mailto link, that it is the
Outlook mail program that opens instead of Outlook Express. When I check the
OE options I find that OE is no longer the default mail handler.

I am not doing anything (as far as I know) to cause Outlook to take over as
default mail handler. Does anyone know why Outlook might be stealing
default-mail-handler status, and what can be done to fix this permanently?

Thanks.

David

 

[Gordon]

I'm running Outlook 2003 on Windows XP Home, SP2.

I use Outlook Express 6.0 as my mail program and in the OE options I set
it to be the default mail handler. It works correctly, but only for a
time.

Every few days I discover, after clicking on a mailto link, that it is the
Outlook mail program that opens instead of Outlook Express. When I check
the OE options I find that OE is no longer the default mail handler.

I am not doing anything (as far as I know) to cause Outlook to take over
as default mail handler. Does anyone know why Outlook might be stealing
default-mail-handler status, and what can be done to fix this permanently?

Thanks.

David

When you download office Updates, Outlook takes over.
Tell me, WHY are you using OE for mail when you have Outlook?

 

[David Mayerovitch]

Thanks, Gordon, that explains it. I wonder why Microsoft thinks it knows
better than I do what my default mail handler should be.

Why OE rather than Outlook? For me, OE feels a little more nimble, less
sluggish in response. I also mistrust having all my emails wrapped up in a
huge impenetrable PST file whose corruption might blow everything away (yes,
I keep backups) -- I just feel more comfortable with the smaller files for
each mail folder.

David