Can't set Yahoo as my default email client

I am running IE 7 under Vista Home Premium 64 bit with SP1. I made
Yahoo my home page and want to make Yahoo Mail my default email client
instead of Outlook or Windows Mail. However, when I get to the window
where I can select my default programs, Yahoo is not listed. According
to Yahoo Help, as long as the Yahoo Toolbar is loaded (it is), Yahoo
Mail should be in the list. I've tried loading the toolbar several
times, but it jes' ain't there.

Can anyone help with this?

Do you have Yahoo Toolbar v7.2 or higher installed? cf.
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mai...ttings-10.html

Yes, I do. I also have the ATT tool bar installed, but neither of these
helped. Yahoo mail is not in the list of available default programjs.

I was able to resolve this with Yahoo Phone Tech Support's help. It's
too long a process to describe here, but if you have the same problem I
suggest you call Yahoo phone support and they can talk you through it.

Essentially what you do is set up Windows Mail with options to use ATT
Yahoo as the incoming and outgoing servers.

That may make your Yahoo account the default in Windows Mail but it does not
make Yahoo Mail your default Mail Client.

Well, you've completely sidestepped the problem by trading your
webmail for client mail, which you were only able to do because
you don't have a free Yahoo account, your account was partnered
through AT&T.

So I have found out. All the contents of my Yahoo Inbox were downloaded
to Windows mail and all I get are any new emails. That isn't what I
wanted.

What I was trying to do was to continue to use Yahoo as my normal
email, but have yahoo email open when I click a hypertext link (I was
getting Windows Mail).

There seems to be no way to select Yahoo Mail as a default program from
within Vista Home Premium 64-bit. For some reason, many installations
simply do not detect the Yahoo program. I have been told this has been
an ongoing problem ever since Vista came out and it's still not fixed.
More Micorsoft arm-twisting to use their programs, perhaps?

So I see. I still want to keep Yahoo Mail as my normal email, and have
Yahoo open instead of Windows Mail if I click on a hyperlink. But that's
not what I've got now. Windows Mail still opens, but uses yahoo servers
so at least I can clikc and reply. But now all my Yahoo Inbox emails
were downloaded to Windows Mail and are no longer in my Yahoo Inbox. Not
what I wanted either.

To retain mail in both places you should have configured WM to leave a copy
of all messages on the server.
Tools>accounts>select your account>advanced tab.

We did do that when working with Tech Support. I specifcally remember
that.

Have you checked to see if it is still selected?
Tools>accounts>select your account>advanced tab.

Yes, I did. It seems that I wound up with TWO instances of Yahoo as a
POP3 server. In one of them (the default) the box was not checked. So
it looks like I either have to send the mail back to myself at Yahoo, or
else deal with it being on the Windows Mail server.

RATZ!! But it is one way of cleaning out the Inbox......

That's one way of looking at it :-))

Remove one of the instances of Yahoo, or you will end up with duplicate
copies of each mail in your WM Inbox.

Ensure that the account that you keep has the correct settings?

Thanks for the feedback, good luck.

Have you tried these methods:

The second method (YAttach) looks more promising, but I
haven't tried it myself. If you try it, be sure to report back,
since we do get a lot of inquiries about how to set Yahoo
webmail as the default under Vista.

Lots of stuff isn't available or won't work in Vista x64 (and IE x64); e.g.,
Flash.

If (1) Yahoo Toolbar v7.2 or higher is installed and (2) you've enabled the
proper option (in an IE x86 window), (3) Windows Mail is NOT configured as
the default Mail Client, and (4) you open an IE x86 window, does its Mail
button open Yahoo Mail?

After all my experiences with Vista 64 bit, I have concluded it's not
worth the trouble I have had with program and hardware
incompatibilities. I have three Western Digital EIDE HDDs and an HP
Lightscribe DVD drive that are connected via two bridgeboards to
Firewire and the HDDs will not start. For some reason, the MS driver
keeps encountering a problem when trying to run the driver software with
the HDDs, but the DVD drive (also EIDE to Firewire) works perfectly and
uses the same driver as the HDDs.

That means I have about $500-$600 worth of hardware that I must
replace; hope that SP2 finally fixes Firewire with 64 bit versions of
Vista; wait for Windows 7 and hope that isn't just as screwed up with
hardware support and drivers.

I am amazed that after getting XP working so well after SP2, the same
problems are infesting Vista right from its release up to and including
SP1. One would think that Microsoft would have the Lessons Learned
disseminated to all its development teams and avoid so much customer
annoyance and dissatisfaction. No wonder there are so many Mac Heads and
Linux die-hards; and no wonder MS is pushing to get Windows 7 into
stores for the holiday shopping season.

Back to Yahoo.......

If (1) Yahoo Toolbar v7.2 or higher is installed and (2) you've enabled
the
proper option (in an IE x86 window), (3) Windows Mail is NOT configured
as
the default Mail Client, and (4) you open an IE x86 window, does its
Mail
button open Yahoo Mail?

I have the Yahoo toolbar installed, I supposedly have IE 7 configured
to use my regular email (which would be Yahoo) and I have Yahoo opening
as my Home page in IE 7. From there I can go directly into Yahoo Mail
after signing in. I am getting email delivered both to Yahoo and Windows
Mail now.

The other poster on this thread, Gary VanderMolen, has given me a link
to YAttach, a program that is suppose dto force Vista to recognize Yahoo
Mail so it can be selected as tghe default Mail program. I'll let you
know how it works.

Thanks, Gary!

In my opinion, anyone who opts for the 64-bit version of Vista when
he could have used the 32-bit version is asking for trouble.

The real trouble is computer manufacturers like HP who pre-load the 64
bit version so the user has no choice. I didn't.

Checking today's computer sales ads, I see what is happening.
Most come equipped with 4GB RAM nowadays, and the only way
you can use all of that 4GB is to run 64-bit.

Vista is such a big OS that it doesn't run well on less than 3 Gb of
RAM. The 64 bit feature helps it use RAM better as well as virtual
memory. I notice that even at idle, Vista uses 1.86 Gb of RAM right off
the top.

Word on the street is that Windows 7 is much better at using RAM and
doesn't suck it up as much. It seems to be a much superior OS but than
again Vista is such a kludge that it doesn't take much. I think Vista
is the worst OS Microsoft has released with the exception of Windows
Millenium.

*You* purchased a Vista 64-bit computer, HP didn't give it to you.

I used Vista Ultimate (32-bit) with 1 GB RAM for many months with good or
great performance. I also used Visual Studio 2008 and other software. You
probably are loading more than Vista during startup.

I now have 2 GB and I think I notice an improvement but nothing especially
noticeable.