Default Mail Client not properly installed

Help, When I am in a website and I click on a link to email someone I get the message "Default mail client not properly installed" I have tried everything I can think of and cannot fix it. I am operating in Windows Vista and use Outlook in Microsoft Office 2003 as my email program, any suggestions

go to control panel/programs and features, and highlight the listing for outlook or office (whichever you have), and then click "change". you should then be presented with a list of options. pick "repair".

thank you for the reply, I ran the repair program for Office and I am still getting the same error message. Any other suggestions...

I am having the same problem and beyond that, other threads give instructions for selecting MSOutlook as the default mail client but I don't have Outlook as a selection (I'm running Office 2007) - so I can't select Outlook as the default mail client.

Since I just posted this I stumbled across a fix.
1. Open the default programs and select set associations
2. Select MapiMail then click the change program button and browse to find MSOutlook and assign it as the default program

For some reason when I did this, it added "Mailto" as a protocol (it hadn't even been listed before.)

3. Select the Mailto protocol and then assign Outlook as the default program.

Voila! My default mail program is now set and I can click a web page mailto link.

UPDATE - for some reason, the "mailto" protocol change that I described above has disappeared from my Program defaults and I am back to square one - "default email client not set up"

I have not been able to find a way to add "mailto" to the default list.