I admit, I like Windows 10, but there are a few settings that tend to annoy me because they exploit the everyday user’s unfamiliarity with Windows 10 in order to push built-in Windows 10 apps on the unsuspecting. One of those settings designates the Windows 10 Mail application as the default mail application – even after Outlook has been installed.
[Just to clarify: When you are reading an email in Outlook and you click “Reply” you get a new email Window in Outlook. That’s not the issue.]
Here’s how this setting can cause you problems: When you click an email link on a web page – or even an email link within the body of an email you may be reading in Outlook, instead of opening the new email window in Outlook, Windows 10 will open a new email window in its own email application.
If you’d like all new email windows to open in Outlook, follow the 3 steps below to change your Windows 10 default mail application to Outlook.
1. In the Windows 10 search bar, type the word “Default” and the window should expand upwards displaying “Default app settings”
2. Left-click “Default app settings” and a window showing your Default Apps should appear with “Email” at the top.
3. Left-click somewhere over the envelope icon and select the email program you prefer.
(see the images below for more help and
click any image to view it larger on its own page)
When you begin typing, a menu similar to the one in the image below should pop up above the search bar.
After you click “Default app settings” you should see the following menu displaying the Mail icon under the word “Email”:
If you hover your mouse over the Mail icon, it will be highlighted with a gray bar as in the image below:
When you left-click anywhere on the gray bar, a menu will open similar to the one in the image below. Just click the email application you prefer (in this example, I’ve used “Outlook 2016”) and you’re done!
Hopefully, a Windows 10 update won’t hijack that setting and make you do this again. 🙂
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