How do I make yahoo mail the default email?

Question

The link provided in similar questions does not work properly.

So far, all of you are simply incorrect. As of last week my free yahoo account WAS set up as the default email, however, the settings were lost during a hard drive exchange (this pc has two). Basically, when I click on an email hyperlink, an Outlook window (my current default program) pops up. I do not have (nor have ever had) an Outlook email account. I just want the old yahoo window to pop up when I click on someone's email address.

It has simply been a long time since I set this up, and I don't remember how I did it. Now, if you don't know exactly how to solve this problem, please quit wasting my time. Thanks

Answer 1

You can make Yahoo! Mail ( the free account ) your default email program, contrary to what some of the other answerers said, their understanding of email is wrong.

Click Tools > Internet Options > Programs tab > under E-mail click the down arrow and select Yahoo! Mail > click Apply. If it's not listed follow the directions below.

I don't know if the link i'm posting below is the link you are talking about, but so far this has worked for everybody else. Almost all the similar questions I have posted this answer to have said it worked and picked it as best answer. I hope it works for you, and if not I don't know what the problem could be.

This is what you need to do to make Yahoo! Mail your default email program, and teach your computer to use Yahoo! Mail. Follow the directions below and it will solve your problem.

Using Internet Explorer just click "Continue" on the link below to download a small 60K file that will enable Yahoo! Mail to be the default email program for your computer. Whenever you click on an email address on any web page or in any computer program, Yahoo! Mail will open for you in a new window.

If Internet Explorer displays a yellow security bar at the top, click on it and select Install ActiveX Control from the menu.
If a security warning comes up with Yahoo! Inc. as the publisher, click Install.

Now you can click on an email address anywhere and your computer will automatically open up Yahoo! Mail for you.
You can even send documents directly from Word, Excel, or other Windows applications.

Requirements:
Windows 95 / 98 / ME / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista
Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher

http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/mail/ext/ext-11.html

Answer 2

For God's and Satan's Sake, your understanding of emails and emailing is wrong, if you understand emails correctly, you'll know that this is actually (sorry) a really stupid question.

If you let me restate your question: How do I make Yahoo Mail the default email in Outlook (or Outlook Express or any other email programs)?

My answer would be, you can't unless you're a paid user. The free account on Yahoo don't allow you to use an email program to access your emails. You can only access it through web interface, that is by going to: http://mail.yahoo.com/ or http://www.yahoomail.com/ (or to http:/www.yahoo.com , then click the mail picture)

There are other free email providers that can be accessed through email program, like Gmail (http://www.gmail.com or http://mail.google.com/ ). Instruction on setting up Outlook (or other email program) for a Gmail account can be seen on the site's help.

Hotmail (including MSN and Live) also don't allow free users to allow email access through an email Program.

And Hutson: That is another common misunderstanding. What you've done isn't making Yahoo Mail a default email. What you've done is to change the computer so that everytime it met the mailto: protocol it would open Yahoo Mail. Well, technically this is NOT making it a default email address (although practically it is almost making it a default email "program" [and Yahoo mail is not a program])

Mailto: protocol is supposed to be used by a mail application like Outlook, not an external email address like Yahoo Mail. What Hutson has given is a hack to make Windows transfer a mailto: protocol to the downloaded program, which would open your Yahoo Mail. If you don't care how these all works, you could carefreely says that this is making Yahoo Mail you default "program" since it does something similar to it, but in fact, it is technically incorrect to say so. Technically, you're making the program that you download the default email client.

Sorry, for being so complicated, but this is to clear the misunderstanding both you and Hutson might have. The hacks you give is to make the program the default mail client, not making YahooMail itself your default email address (and you can't make any email address your default).

Answer 3

yahoo is NOT a email program on your computer
it is a email program on YAHOOs computers
Your computer will not recognize it as a default
email program.

Answer 4

when you open the page to the internet (usually Internet explorer) you go to tools then internet options and you type in www.yahoo.com in the home page box

Answer 5

go under options