Vista - Customize Start Menu > E-mail link > Live Mail ?

"Cristy13" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote ...Hi Christy

Unfortunately, I don't believe this is possible.

To be listed under the Start Menu email options, an email program needs to
install and register a DLL (a program file) in the correct location in the
Windows Registry. The email program also needs to register itself as one of
the "mailto" protocol handlers.

Some email applications which you install onto your PC will do this - for
example, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, etc.

As far as I know, Yahoo mail is a web-based email system: no program code
gets installed onto your PC, it all runs from the website pointed to by the
URL. So, there is nothing to register, as an email client. It would - in
theory - be possible for Yahoo or other web-based email providers to install
a DLL to achieve this, but that would obviate some of the benefits of
web-based email eg you can access it from any web browser, without any
special software installed.

It's a bit annoying (I have same problem with Google Gmail) but, that's the
way it is.

For more technical background, see this MSDN entry:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...67(VS.85).aspx

Not the answer you wanted, but ... I hope it helps a bit.

Andrew
--
amclar at optusnet dot com dot au

Thank you for your reply. I recently bought a new computer with Windows Vista. On my other computer, which used Windows XP, I was able to change the email in the start menu to Yahoo Mail, so is this just a Vista quirk?

"Cristy13" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote ...Ah, okay!!

In that case ... maybe you had the Yahoo Toolbar installed, before? If you
install the Toolbar into Internet Explorer, then I *think* you can set Yahoo
as the email application.

See http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mai...mail/settings/

Select "Yahoo! Mail and Your Browser" on that page, and then click on the
link "How can I make Yahoo! Mail my default email application?".

It looks like the Toolbar does indeed download the necessary binary file to
your local PC. Apologies for my earlier misinformation (although it was,
broadly, correct :-)

Hope it helps,

Andrew
--
amclar at optusnet dot com dot au

I already have the Yahoo toolbar on this computer; still I checked out that link and got as far as Control Panel--there is no "Internet Options" in my control panel.

I'm not sure why Internet Options doesn't appear in your Control Panel. But
you can reach the same panel by running Internet Explorer, clicking on
"Tools" on the IE Toolbar (or press the Alt key and select Tools, Internet
Options from the menu).

Then click the Programs tab, at the top on the Internet Options panel
(General, Security, Privacy, Content, Connections, Programs, Advanced)

Then press the Set Programs button under the "Internet Programs" heading.

Then click on the "Set program access and computer defaults" link. Under
Custom, look for "Choose a default email program".

If Yahoo mail is listed there, you're in luck - choose it.

If Yahoo Mail is not there, then it is not registered on your system as an
email provider. In this case, you'll probably need to take your question to
a Yahoo Mail related forum. The problem is very specific to Yahoo mail, and
not really a general Windows problem.

In general terms, web-based mail applications cannot be added to the Start
Menu; only "fat" email clients installed on the local machine. But Yahoo may
have some kind of mechanism to register an email link.

Good luck,
Andrew