Making email links open with Google Apps Mail / Gmail

I’ve been using Google Apps for a while now and one of the things that bothers me is when I click a mailto link on a web page I get outlook instead of Gmail. After a few tries I figured out a way to have mailto links passed to Gmail. In my case I use Firefox 3.5 as my default web browser, but I use Google Chrome for my email because of the Application Shortcuts. It makes Gmail feel more like standalone software, which I like.

This tutorial will show you how to make email links (mailto links) open a new window in Chrome, and automatically compose a new message using Gmail or Google Apps. If you’re using Firefox, you can have a look at this tutorial on lifehacker.com . For the advanced users, you can jump to the bottom of this page and grab the end results.

I can’t confirm all the operating systems this will work on, but I do know it will work on Windows XP, Window XP X64, and Windows 7. (possibly Vista, but I don’t have an install to try it on – EDIT: as per xceptional‘s comment, it doesn’t look like this trick will work on vista). If you’re on Vista you can try going to Default Programs and then “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”. For the XP or X64 users…

1. Go to Control Panel > Folder Options
2. Select the File Types tab
3. Under the File Types column look for “URL:MailTo Protocol” , which will probably be towards the top of the list (15th entry for me).
4. With the “URL:MailTo Protocol” selected, click the Advanced button.
5. In the Actions box there should be “open” already, since by default mailto links open with Outlook Express.
6. Select “open” and click the “Edit…” button.
7. Under “Application used to preform action:” we’ll delete what’s there and then replace it with:

“C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/?extsrc=mailto&url=%1

8. There’s two parts, the first half is specifying where Google Chrome is located on your computer. If you’re unsure, you can right click on the shortcut and it will tell you. Also, change USERNAME to your own windows profile name.
9. The second part is telling Google Mail to open and compose a new message using the mailto link that was clicked. You’ll need to change the URL to your own Google Apps URL. If you’re unsure, you can look at the URL when in your inbox.
10. For users using Gmail instead of Google Apps you can use:

“C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” http://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1

11. As I mentioned at the start, one of the features I like about Chrome is the Application Shortcuts. That being said, I definitely don’t need to see my address bar or bookmarks when I’m writing my emails. I grabbed two parameters off one of my Application Shortcuts: –app= and -disable-popup-blocking. Here is my final results:

“C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –app=http://mail.google.com/a/domain.com/?extsrc=mailto&url=%1 -disable-popup-blocking

12. And if you’re using Gmail with Chome:

“C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –app=http://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1 -disable-popup-blocking