Tired of Outlook opening when you click on an Email link?

If you have ever responded to a Craigslist posting, you are familiar with the annoying problem of clicking on the link to respond to an ad and having Microsoft Outlook open.  Well, solve this problem in a couple of easy steps.  These steps assume that you would want to switch Windows from opening Outlook to opening a web based email (ie. Yahoo Mail, GMail, Hotmail, etc.). 

Firefox has one such tool built in--at least if you're using Gmail or Yahoo Mail. Select Tools, then Options. Click the Applications tab. Select mailto, pull down the menu, and select Use Gmail or Use Yahoo! Mail.

Chrome users should go to the Chrome web store and search for mailto. You'll find plenty of Mail plug-ins for specific services. You'll also find the generic Mailto, which supports AOL, Fastmail, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Zoho, or, with a bit of work, other services.

I know of no such add-ins for Internet Explorer. However, there are 2 Gmail specific solutions.

If you use Gmail, Google offers two free programs, either of which will handle mailto links appropriately: Gmail Notifier and the Google Toolbar. Both of these have other features and come with other baggage, so you may or may not want them.

If you decide to install the Notifier, make sure to leave the Use for outgoing mail option checked. If you go with the Toolbar, click the Tool icon, and in the General tab, check Use Gmail for "Mail To" links.

So long Outlook!