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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Setting the default email service in Windows

I have Windows XP with Outlook Express as the default email service. How can I change to Yahoo as my default, ie when I press the 'mail' button on the keyboard and when I pick up an email address from a website that I want to contact? The control panel only gives Hotmail/MSN as possible alternative. Lindsay Rough

Usually, you can change the default email service by going to Internet Explorer, selecting Tools, then clicking the tab marked Programs. In my case, the drop-down list marked E-mail offers a range that includes Ameol2, Eudora, Outlook Express, Outlook, and Hotmail ... but not Yahoo.

However, Yahoo has a help page that offers a utlity ("a small 147KB file") to change the default. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/ext/ext-11.html or http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/mail/ext/ext-11.html. (There are different addresses for USand UK users but I expect the utility is the same.)

Note: the continuation page says "The driver has been successfully downloaded" before it has actually started the download.

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