I’ve been rocking Google’s new web browser Chrome for the last few days and really like it. Browsing craigslist and clicking on email mailto: links I realized there isn’t an obvious way to force these links to open a gmail window in Chrome. Most Windows systems will have the default mailto handler set as Outlook Express.
One option is to install the gmail notifier program. I opted instead for a quick change to the Windows XP filetype settings.
Note that following these instructions will cause all mailto links to open in Google Chrome, even if you are browsing in Firefox, Safari or (gasp) Internet Explorer so make sure you want to use google Chrome as your primary browser before continuing.
In any windows explorer window (except desktop):
* Go to Tools > Folder Options > File Types
* Near the top of the list of filetypes, click on “URL:Mailto Protocol”
* Click on “Advanced”
* With “open” highlighted, click on “Edit”
* Change the application to:
"C:\Pathto\chrome.exe" https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
This should all be on one line with a space between the quotation mark after the path info and the https. My path was “C:\Documents and Settings\Brendan\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” To find yours, just right click on a google Chome shortcut (like the one in your start menu), go to “properties” and copy the “Target” field.
35 Comments
you can simply use sohial’s gmail notifier for Google Apps
http://gmailnotifier.net
I still like to use firefox 3 because its perfectly customized with extensions, but chrome blows it away speed-wise, especially with gmail. I’d like to have firefox mailto links open up a new chrome window.. but i can’t find the “URL:mailto protocol” file type. Any suggestions?? Hope I can get this great tip working for me
“URL:mailto protocol†is near the top of the list where extension is (None). On my system, it is 14th from the top.
Thanks for the simple instructions. However, after I made the changes you suggested and clicked on a mailto: link, Chrome took me to the page: http://xn--app%3Dhttps-p89d//mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=mailto:astark1@unl.edu. I don’t understand where all the extra characters came from. Any idea how to fix this?
Thanks!
Awesome! Worked like a charm. I’m trying to keep my system free of unnecessary apps and was missing this feature. Thanks again!
I’ve found another programme to open Google Chrome’s mailto: links in Gmail: you can try it here: http://skaelede.hu/?e=chromemailer&lg=en
you should mention that there is NO blank in front of the “app”..
I cant get this to work. Currently I have the following in the Application used to perform this action blank:
“C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” -app=https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
I’m getting errors in chrome, does this need to be placed in some other blank?
Ahh I got it to work, thanks for sharing! But is there a way to make it open a new tab rather than a new window?
@qwertyphd I had the same error, try changing the hyphen before “app” to a regular dash (as in between the “0″ and “=”) and make sure there is only one space after the chrome.exe location
Thanks Mike! It’s working now
works great! thanks, don’t you now how to make windows context menu Send to works simillary?
If you’re willing to do some digging in the registry, you can make this work in Vista, as well. Open up Registry Editor, and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command and edit the (Default) command from whatever it is to the string mentioned in this article.
I haven’t fully tested it yet, but I *BELIEVE* that this changes it for EVERY USER on the computer. Don’t do this on a multi-account computer unless you’re willing to force this on everyone. (My computer only has one account, so I can’t verify easily.) It is also possible that this only changes the default setting, and any user that has manually changed their default mail handler will still use their other email program; or at worst, have to re-set it to their preferred program again.
A second tip is that if you have “Google Apps for your Domain” (i.e. you’re having Google host your domain’s email,) you can customize it for your domain by changing the URL above so that instead of “mail.google.com/mail?…” it reads “mail.google.com/a/yourdomainhere.com?…” (obviously, use the rest of the URL mentioned above after the question mark; and use your domain instead of “yourdomainhere.com”.)
Instead of this:
“\path\to\chrome\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
-app=https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
It should be this:
“\path\to\chrome\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
\app=https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
Thanks for the tip, “Game tips Zone”. It looks like you don’t need the “\app =” at all, you can just pass the URL after the path to chrome.exe with a space separating them. Perhaps this is due to a change in one of the recent google chrome releases.
Perfect, thanks!
I think Peter (Post #1) is the author of Sohial’s Gmail notifier. He’s even promoted it on my blog. It has changed and it’s not very good nor is it free anymore. Peter, stop promoting it…
Thank you for this topic. Now it works perfect! This option in the Gmail Notifier doesn’t work.
Worked like a charm .. thanks!
It works, but after a restart it changes back. Is there a way to resolve this?
How can you add in the subject field?
like: mailto:sale-1038835744@craigslist.org?subject=2GB%20matched%20Patriot%20PC3200%20Low%20latency%20ram%20400mhz%20-%20$40%20(PDX)
Ok, I figured out how.
Check my blog for the answer.
I found a way to open the mailto links in a chrome app window…
C:\Path\chrome.exe –app=https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
In my latest I.E. there is not drop down under
“tools” that say “open folders…..”.
So, I could not get your suggestions to work for making gmail my default email rather than the Yahoo mail that it was previously.
can you help me complete the path.
this is my cuuret path it dosn’t work for me.
“C:\Documents and Settings\ADMIN\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” -app=https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
in my haste to change I did not make a note of what it used to say in the URL:mailto protocol before I changed it to: “C:\Pathto\chrome.exe” https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
what did it used to say to get it to go to Outlook in case I wish to return to this.. (I’m annoyed subject line doesn’t prefill as it did in outlook) is there some more code I can add to the gmail one?
Thanks for this. I used your instructions to make mailto: links open in Mozilla Thunderbird. I just changed the application path to thunderbird.exe’s location.
Thanks again!
Worked great!
To make the new email open in a nice Chrome application window, add –app= before the URL, like this:
“C:\Pathto\chrome.exe” –app=https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1
awesome.. so much better than having to wait an age for Outlook to open up just to close it, copy the email address and compose a gmail
THANKS
@Jürgen
the original text in the “Application used to perform action” field was:
“C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe” /mailurl:%1
Nice one Brendan – this has almost made my life complete…
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0b8a4badbeaa646f&hl=en#9
If you look at the 9th post he made a nice java script which changes all the mailto links so Chrome can use them properly.
Works real well in firefox to open links in Chrome/Gmail
Can anyone tell me what that %1 is for? I’ve tried searching for an answer but Google just ignores the % sign.
Great! Thanks from Brazil!
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