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How to Make Outlook Express Your Default Windows Email Program

By Heinz Tschabitscher, About.com

If you default to Outlook Express for your email wants, it is a choice — not a kind of fallback mechanism after everything else has failed.

All the more annoying when Windows does not respect your choice and keeps bringing up a different email program (like Outlook) when, say, you click on an email address in your browser to send a message. Fortunately, you can tell Windows that you really prefer Outlook Express.

Make Outlook Express Your Default Windows Email Program

To ensure Outlook Express is Windows's default program for all things email:

  • Make sure Outlook Express is not running.
  • Select Run... from the Start menu.
  • Type "msimn /reg" (excluding the quotation marks).
  • Hit Enter.
    • Wait for, say, ten seconds for the process to finish. Nothing will appear on screen. Do not let that disturb you.
  • Launch Outlook Express.
  • Select Tools | Options... from the menu.
  • Go to the General tab.
  • Click Make Default under Default Messaging Programs.
  • Click OK
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