How to Make Gmail your Default Email Program in Windows 7 (Updated… again!)
Here is something I get asked alot – How do I make GMail my default email program in Microsoft Windows 7? In MS Windows 7, you have the option to change your Default Programs to which ever email program you have installed – but GMail isn’t installed on your computer and doesn’t show up in Default Programs.
You could installed GMail Notifier and set it to open gmail for you when an email link is clicked – but there is another way if you are willing to edit the registry. I know this can sound a bit technical, but its not difficult to do. If it does scary you off – then go with the GMail notifier option – otherwise follow these steps:
- Right Click on the link below for your browser below
- Select Save As
- Save to your computer
- if you are using chrome – open the txt file you just saved and replace {username} with the username you log in with
- Find where you saved the file and change the file extension from .txt to .reg
- import the registry file to your computer – (Update: I didn’t mean to sound “geeky” here… to “import” just double click the .reg file, or right click and select import – Windows will do all the “heavy lifting” from there)
If step 4 has you hung up – you need to change your folder options to not hide extensions for known file types.
chrome-gmail <– YOU MUST EDIT {USERNAME} BEFORE YOU IMPORT THIS TO YOUR REGISTRY
IE64-gmail <– this is for the 64bit version of IE however I don’t use it and don’t recommend using it.
Update for Firefox users: According to a comment below, if you’re using Firefox, all you have to do is:
Tools>Options>Applications, then change the mailto action to Use Gmail.
Please leave a comment if that worked for you. Otherwise, here are the registry hacks for Firefox:
About the Author: 
Nick | Dec 8, 2010 | Reply
How do I undo the process?
Thanks.
james | Dec 17, 2010 | Reply
you are obviously very good at what you do.. but that does not include being able to transfer your knowledge to none geeks!!
sorry left me totally confused// what the hell is gmail 32 bit! for instance and what is the folder thing all about<?
dsackr | Dec 31, 2010 | Reply
@James – if you are running there are two versions of Firefox for Windows 7 – one is 32bit, the other is 64bit. If you don’t know which version you are running – try 32bit first. In fact – you could import all four (chrome, 32bit and 64bit firefox, and ie) to your registry without hurting your computer.
dsackr | Dec 31, 2010 | Reply
@Nick – that’s a little bit more difficult. You may be able to simply use the built in Windows Default Programs to change it if you are using a desktop application like outlook.
Otherwise, you can manually remove the entry created when you followed the instructions from this post. If you are not familiar with Windows Registry – then you shouldn’t attempt that because you can seriously mess up your computer. If you are comfortable with regedit – then surf down in the registry to the entry imported from this post (you can find that by opening the txt file linked in the post). Once you find the entry that was imported – delete it.
Donna | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
Thanks very much for this registry advice. Works perfectly!
Louie | Feb 27, 2011 | Reply
There’s a problem in your registry key for “chrome-gmail”. The installation path for Chrome is in C:\Users\\AppData\… but you have used your own username “dsackr” which will not work for everyone else. I’m assuming this is a problem only with Chrome because no other browser is idiotic enough to install into an user folder.
dsackr | Mar 5, 2011 | Reply
Louie – you are correct! Thank you for pointing that out, I have updated the post…
Eric | Mar 17, 2011 | Reply
Thank you! I was looking for the correct registry edit since I use Chrome and am receiving gmail notifications without the use of gmail notifier. So I just needed a simple way to make gmail my default e-mail client. I appreciate that you took the time to share your knowledge.
Andrew | Apr 19, 2011 | Reply
Can’t get it to work using chrome. When I click an email in chrome, it opens a new, blank tab. I downloaded, changed to my username, saved, changed to .reg, and then imported. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Mick | May 5, 2011 | Reply
I tried your registry import for gmail, firfox & windows 7 64bit.
It didn’t work:
When I try to mailto I get a message saying I need to set up my default email client. The path reffered to in the registry setting is correct for my firefox.exe.
I also note that your firefox reg-setting refers to “program files (x86)” directory which I thought was for 32 bit progs.
and your firefox 32bit reg setting refers to the W7 directory for 64 bit programs.
chrisgod | Jun 3, 2011 | Reply
Well done that MAN!! I take my hat off to ANYONE who is more clever than I am at something, which is why I very rarely wear a HAT!
Thank You
kay | Jun 8, 2011 | Reply
I used the7 gmail notifier for web mailto:links. How can I use gmail within windows 7? for example, when clicking the “send to” when I’m inside an adobe or word doc. When I click that, it still comes up Thunderbird and not gmail. I have unclicked the “use Thunderbird as default email”.
George | Jul 8, 2011 | Reply
Hello
I went ahead and attempted this using Windows 7 64-bit and tried the firefox gmail & gmail 32bit.. but yet when I aM IN OpenOffice or other and attempt to send as email document (other) it still comes up and says that a default email program is not associated or installed. Is there something I am missing?
Regards
George
K41N | Jul 17, 2011 | Reply
Wow, that worked awesomely. Thank you very much for this post
Lucas | Jul 30, 2011 | Reply
If you’re using Firefox, all you have to do is:
Tools>Options>Applications, then change the mailto action to Use Gmail.
That’s all I had to do, anyway.
Travis | Aug 12, 2011 | Reply
your instructions are vague and a waste of my time. youre gonna seriously have people fuking up their computers with your registry directions. fail
Chuck | Aug 22, 2011 | Reply
Does not work for IE and windows 7 – something seriously wrong with it – it opens windows live mail which is a serious piece of junk.
Chuck | Aug 28, 2011 | Reply
Does not work at all for internet explorer. Have spent days trying to get this to work for someone who is NOT knowledgeable enough to us an email program. Wish the so called experts would actually post a correct way to do this instead of bsing people.
mike | Sep 6, 2011 | Reply
wow, that worked so well! thank you.
Donnie | Sep 10, 2011 | Reply
I am using Windows 7 and wanted gmail as my default. I followed the directions of right clicking, save as a .reg file to my desktop, then tried to just right click to open, and windows did the rest. Worked like a charm is two minutes.
Thanks
John Beaddie | Oct 4, 2011 | Reply
I imported the firefox 32bit registry file and it opens gmail. However, it also tries to open numerous spamlike sites in several tabs at the same time. I have to manually shut down each new tab.
Sean | Oct 8, 2011 | Reply
@Andrew I had the same proble. Click a link, it opens a blank chrome window, not gmail.
z | Oct 11, 2011 | Reply
Make sure you check
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\mailto\shell\open\command
also and set it accordingly.
Some programs, like gmail notifier will modify this, but when uninstalled will leave not fix remove its entry, so you’ll have problems.
make sure the two locations are the same.
Brian | Nov 11, 2011 | Reply
What does “import the registry file” mean? Could you please use language that is non-geek?
sam | Nov 13, 2011 | Reply
hello.
about step#5,where is the registry file being imported to? i was able to save the file and change the ext, but not sure where to import the file.
Thanks
Diana | Nov 19, 2011 | Reply
So this is an either or thing. I can’t have more than one (Default) REG_SZ in my registry at once. What if I use IE and chrome interchangeable? I’d like both browsers to make g-mail my default email program..?
And thanks, by the way, I love messing with my registry; it’s like sticking it to the “Man”.
rosi | Dec 16, 2011 | Reply
Hi to you,
I’ve just tried to call you, but the call keeps dropping out. I followed the steps above to set gmail as my default, changed the .txt to .reg, but still windows live mail comes up when I press a web page link. I have a Windows 7 system. Do I need to change the protocol or file under the “programs” “internet options”? I see the windows live mail mail file and the protocol for Mailto, but I don’t see the chrome-mail file I changed to .reg. I did see the (username) box on the file address and put in my username inside the brackets.
What have I missed or other. Please help as I have just spent about two hours doing this!
Many thanks and hoping for some help.
Rosi
outofcoffee | Dec 16, 2011 | Reply
You hero! This works great on Windows 7 Ultimate.
Steps:
1. Download the file above with ‘.reg’ as the suffix
2. Set the username in the file
3. Go to Start > Run
4. Run regedit
5. Go to File > Import
6. Try it!
dsackr | Dec 19, 2011 | Reply
@sam, once you change the file name to .reg – you should be able to double click it and Windows will import it to the registry for you.
dsackr | Dec 19, 2011 | Reply
@Brian, LOL – sometimes I forget just how geeky I am – double click the .reg file or right click and select import – Windows will actually handle most of the heavy lifting from there…
dsackr | Dec 19, 2011 | Reply
@George, This is because of the way OpenOffice handles email links – there is nothing I know of to fix that… sorry…
tomtherealtor | Dec 24, 2011 | Reply
so this worked like a charm on my my Dell desk top at the office but I have been stuck here all day trying to get this on my HP laptop using windows 7 home addition. Have even removed microsoft office 2003 from the lap top. Any ideas or ways to get this to work? Merry Christmas.
tomtherealtor | Dec 24, 2011 | Reply
Using IE9
Gage P | Dec 30, 2011 | Reply
Thanks for the info. Microsoft doesn’t make this easy.
Jsad | Jan 3, 2012 | Reply
Worked like a charm. Keep up the good work. The world needs people like you.
dsackr | Jan 4, 2012 | Reply
@tomtherealtor, I’ve not updated the registry file for IE9 and I’m guessing that is the issue. I will try to get an update this week.
christine | Jan 16, 2012 | Reply
how do i change the .txt to .reg?
Tina | Jan 19, 2012 | Reply
I have Windows 7 Starter and I went through the process as stated above for changing the registry on Windows 7. I still don’t have gmail as an option for my default programs. I am obviously not very knowledgable in regards to all this tech information, but my system did go through the process of changing the registry. I just have no idea what to do now to make it work. Please advice.
Keenerhead | Feb 7, 2012 | Reply
Make sure if you are using Win 7 32bit to alter program files (x86) to just Program Files. Delete the (x86) out of that one line. If not it will say something like program isn’t properly installed. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE MODIFYING. You’ve been warned
Aaron Newton | Feb 11, 2012 | Reply
Cheers for pointing out how to do this.
If you want to find your Chrome (or other program) exe location on the system do the following.
1) Open Task Manager and find the Chrome process
2) Right click on this and “Go to Process”
3) Right click and select “Properties”
The execution path will be under “Location”. You should edit your path to reflect this in the file (just open it in Notepad). Replace all of the “\” characters in the path with “\\” (except for the last one) so “c:\program files\stuff\” would be “c:\\program files\\stuff\”. Save you file with the .reg extension. You can then double-click on the .reg file and it will install to the registry.
If you want to backup you registry first, you should open regedit (just type “regedit” into the program search which appears when you click the Windows icon on the tray). In regedit, navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mailto\shell\open\” (hint – expanding the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and beginning to type “S-O-F…” would skip to “SOFTWARE” and the same for subsequent sub-folders). You can right-click on the “open” folder and export the existing registry entry to a .reg file – this will make reverting to the old entry easy.
Aaron Newton | Feb 11, 2012 | Reply
“how do i change the .txt to .reg?”
I’m guessing you have file extensions hidden in your Windows Explorer (see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-vista/Show-or-hide-file-name-extensions). You could fix this and then rename the file in Windows Explorer with “.reg” instead of “.txt”, but another way would just be to open it in Notepad (click on the Windows icon in your tray and type “Notepad” into the search) and save it as a new copy with “.reg” as the file extension.
Aaron Newton | Feb 11, 2012 | Reply
On a related note – I have this working brilliantly (hooray), but it’s missing all of the usual menus and other chrome that usually appears around the composer window. I’m looking for a way to fix this – known fixes welcome!
Robert | Feb 29, 2012 | Reply
When I do this:
“if you are using chrome – open the txt file you just saved and replace {username} with the username you log in with”
do I replace the {} also, or just the text inside them?
dsackr | Feb 29, 2012 | Reply
@Robert, replace the {} as well…
David | Mar 7, 2012 | Reply
Hello,
I followed your instructions for changing the default email to Gmail. I don’t have Chrome. Running Windows 7 with whatever the latest updates are. Double clicking on the renamed file didn’t work so I right clicked and selected Merge. Import wasn’t one of the options. The computer asked for permission to change something, warned me that I was about to change the registry and then said it successfully changed the registry. I was pumped at this point:) Then I right clicked on the photo I was trying to email (after I closed and restarted internet explorer) and it still started Windows Live. Do you know what I can do to get Gmail set as my default email program?
Cheers,
Dave
Tosca | Mar 13, 2012 | Reply
Hello, I have double clicked firefox-gmail.reg but getting error saying file cannot be imported as it is not a registry file. Windows 7 64bit. Thanks
dsackr | Mar 17, 2012 | Reply
@Tosca, Not sure what’s going on there – most likely something has changed on the reg file itself. If the header information in the file is modified at all, Windows won’t recognize it. You could open the reg file – and use the information in it to manually create the key from the file in your registry… but that is a advanced geek only task…
dsackr | Mar 17, 2012 | Reply
@David, unfortunately, right click send to options in many windows programs will still bring up a mail program like Windows Live. This hack is meant to force Windows to open gmail when you click a mailto link. If you are sending a picture or document – log into gmail and attach the file from there…
val | Apr 6, 2012 | Reply
Lucas is right and it’s super easy.
If you’re using Firefox, all you have to do is:
Tools>Options>Applications, then change the mailto action to Use Gmail.
Thank you!