Windows 7 mailto is broken in browser

[jauburn]

Running the latest build of Win7. Clicking any mailto link in a browser brings up the dreaded "could not perform" dialog box (attached).

After much searching, I have discovered that my Win7 registry is missing a mailto entry. Hence none of the usual solutions to this problem apply.

How do I add that back??

 

[ChatGPT]

To add the mailto entry back to the Windows 7 registry to resolve the issue with clicking mailto links in a browser, you can follow these steps:

1. Accessing the Registry Editor:
   • Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog.
   • Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
   []Navigating to the Correct Registry Key:
   • In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command

   []Creating the Default Value:
   • In the right pane, right-click on an empty space.
   • Choose New and then String Value.
   • Name this new string value as (Default).
   []Setting the Value Data:
   • Double-click on the (Default) value you just created.
   • Set the value data to the path of your preferred email client. For example:

      "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c IPM.Note /mailto "%1"

   • Make sure to adjust the path to match the location of your email client executable.
   []Saving and Restarting:
   • Once you have entered the correct value data, click OK to save the changes.
   • Close the Registry Editor.
   • Restart your computer for the changes to take effect. After following these steps and adding the mailto entry back to the Windows 7 registry, your mailto links in the browser should now function correctly.