How can I configure Outlook to be the default mail client?

A. Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 will prompt you when starting to set as the default mail client if they are not already configured as such however if you checked the "Don't ask me this again" box you cannot display this dialog.

To force Outlook 98 and 2000 to check type the following:

C:\> "c:\program files\microsoft office\office\outlook.exe" /checkclient

Click Yes to the

"Outlook is not currently your default manager for Mail and News.
Would you like to register Outlook as the default manager?"

displayed message.

Clicking Yes updates the following registry entries which you can also manually update (and will need to for older Outlook clients such as Outlook 97)

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail
3. Double click the (Default) value and set to "Microsoft Outlook" (don't type the quotes)
4. Move to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto
5. Double click the (Default) value and set to "URL:MailTo Protocol" (don't type the quotes)
6. Double click the EditFlags value and set to 02 00 00 00
7. Double click the URL Protocol value and clear
8. Move to the DefaultIcon folder (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\DefaultIcon)
9. Double click the (Default) value and set to
   "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\outllib.dll",-12
10. Move to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command
11. Doucle click (Default) and change to
    "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\outlook.exe" -c IPM.Note /m "%1"
    Alternate values (such as Lotus Notes) are:
    "C:\Program Files\notes\notes.exe"=C:\WINNT\notes.ini %1
12. Reboot the computer

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