There are many webmail clients and desktop email clients used by people these days. At times when we click on “mailto” option in our web browsers it directs us to the desktop email clients like Microsoft Outlook. But what if, you would like to use your Gmail instead of these desktop email clients. In such case you need to set Gmail as default mail client.
Set Gmail As Default Mail Client In Chrome
Today we will tell you how to set Gmail default email client in Google Chrome. For this purpose there are few Chrome extensions which can solve our purpose. So, let’s get started.
1. Send From Gmail
The very first tool in our list is a chrome extension. Send from Gmail helps in opening mailto links in a new Gmail tab. This extension also adds a toolbar button which when clicked opens a new compose window with the current opened tab as subject. Selected text and page link are already pasted in message body.
2. Send Using Gmail (no button)
This chrome extension is different from the previous as this one doesn’t add any button to chrome. Send Using Gmail makes sure that all ‘mailto’ links open in Gmail instead of any desktop client. Users can also add an “Email this” command to the right click menu with the help of this chrome extension.
If user presses Ctrl+Shift+M then it will open Gmail in the current opened page. Once installed, its not necessary to reload Chrome to see its effect.
3. Gmail Default Client
Gmail default client is an independently developed chrome extension and is available for download from Chromeplugins.org. Whenever ‘mailto’ link will be clicked by a user, Gmail will open up in an entire window with a new mail compose.
These were 3 chrome extensions which can help in making Gmail default email client. Now for geeks, here is one method which requires registry editor.
4. Registry Edit Method (for Windows 7)
This method has been tested on Windows 7 as of now. We strictly suggest taking back up before going for this method.
- Open start menu and type regedit. Hit enter.
- Now navigate to this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesmailtoshellopencommand
- Now right click on the name field “Default” and the click “modify”. Copy the text written there and keep it as backup.
- Now paste this instead previous written text:
“C:Users*username*AppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe”https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&url=%1”
Make sure that while pasting quotes are there.
- Now change system “username” as your Gmail username. Your username can be viewed at “C:Users”. We edited the username that’s why you can see ‘itechmag’ written as username in image shown above.
- Finally click OK and close regedit window.
So this is how you can set Gmail as default mail client in Google Chrome. If you have any other method or extension which solves the same purpose then do share with us through comments. 
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