Firefox makes it easy to select a default email application like Outlook or Thunderbird. When you click a mailto: link on a web site, that application will automatically open. But with Firefox 3 RC1 you can also choose a webmail application like Yahoo! Mail or Gmail.
Selecting Yahoo! Mail as your default email provider is simple. Just hit the Tools button, select Options, navigate to the Applications tab, and select Yahoo! Mail from the dropdown list next to "mailto." But for some reason, that's the only webmail service included by default. So thanks to Lifehacker, here are the steps to add Gmail:
- Type about:config in the URL bar, and click the I'll be careful button to continue.
- Type gecko.handlerservice into the filter field and find the listing that ends with allowRegisterFromDifferentHost. Click this button to change the value from false to true.
- Copy this line of code into the URL bar:
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")
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A window will pop up asking if you want to add GMail, say yes and you should be all set.
Next time you click a mailto: link on a web site, you should get a choice of services to use including Gmail. You can then set Gmail as your preferred email service.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-22-2008 @ 2:26PM
V said...
Not working for me.
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5-22-2008 @ 2:29PM
V said...
You have to also change "network.protocol-handler.external.mailto" to true.
That did the magic ;)
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5-22-2008 @ 4:35PM
Lane said...
Thanks dude!
5-22-2008 @ 3:13PM
James said...
Also, at least for me in FF 2.X, the line after "Copy this line of code into the URL bar:" is hiding behind the next column on the page -- if I drag-select the text above and below it, I can paste it into e.g. notepad, but I can't read it at all. Somebody might not understand that there's more to it than they can see...
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5-22-2008 @ 4:43PM
V said...
The title says:
Configure Firefox 3 to use Gmail as your default email app
Not Firefox 1.5 or 2.x... Firefox 3.
5-24-2008 @ 8:45AM
Nick said...
Congratulations, V, for not reading properly. Have a biscuit.
"Also, at least for me in FF 2.X, the line after "Copy this line of code into the URL bar:" is hiding behind the next column on the page" - he is talkng about the display of the DLS page in FF2, not performing the customisation in it.
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