Set Thunderbird as default email program

I know the query me sound little off topic for this newsgroup section but it is related to office itself. I recently installed Office Home and Student 2007 version on my Windows Vista laptop. As this office wont have Outlook and Windows default mail wont allow me to add Gmail in the same, I have download Mozilla Thunderbird and want to make it as default email client.

Can anyone please tell me how can I do the same? Many thanks.

There are two ways of doing the same. First is from ThunderBird, go to Tools > Preferences > General Tab > Tick (check) the obvious. This will make it default. Second in Vista Start Menu search field type “Default”. Click the first link. Search and select Thunderbird and click Set as default. That’s it.

I think I failed to explain the problem properly. Actually Thunderbird is already set as Default program but when click on the Excel Office Button Send, it does not show an email program at all. I want to make Thunderbird show up here.

How can I do this?

hi, I know it's a bit too late, since so much time has passed, but there's a way to work around this.

apparently microsoft has a tutorial on how to make outlook a default client, so using that theory, i've managed to tweak it the way i want.

open start > run > regedit

look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Outlook Express

in the right you will see a value set to drive:\PROGRAM FILES\OUTLOOK EXPRESS\MSOE.DLL

edit that value and replace it with:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\mozMapi32_InUse.dll

-----

this way you fool the microsoft office and it opens up the thunderbird.

cheers,
jake

Jake, This is a great tweak. It worked like a charm! I have been frustrated by this for years! Thanks for the clear instructions too!

Smooth like Butta'