In Windows you'll need to designate an application as your default email application, e.g. like Thunderbird.

I did that I think. Windows says that firefox enabled, and that the "current email program" is the default. I cannot find a way to directly specify gmail.

When I click on a website "choose an application for the mailto application", it sends me to my document file. I searched for gmail.exe on the entire hard drive. Nothing.

Google is your friend. http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/set-gmail-as-browser-default-email-client-ht

This should work, but in the last step where I click for a drop down menu of possible applications, there is nothing there. No option of any kind, much less use gmail.

See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Changing+the+e-mail+program+used+by+Firefox

You can check the network.protocol-handler.external.mailto prefs on the about:config page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

If network.protocol-handler.external.mailto prefs are user set (bold) then right-click and Reset them to the default value. You can also try to change the network.protocol-handler.warn-external.mailto pref to true.

So in the Options dialog, Applications panel, mailto doesn't appear or doesn't have any choices? This could indicate that the settings file which stores download actions is corrupted. Since its format is somewhat inscrutable, the standard medicine in this situation is to rename it so Firefox can't find it, and then a new one will be generated automatically.

Here's how:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• Help menu > Troubleshooting Information

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
• File menu > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old

Start Firefox back up again. Does mailto appear in Options?

The next time you go to Yahoo it should trigger Firefox to display an infobar between the bottom of the toolbar area and the top of its page to add the latest version of its mailto handler.

Any luck?

My bad, you want Gmail, not Yahoo. That handler is built-in and should appear on the drop-down if the mimeTypes.rdf file regenerates cleanly.

Bingo!!!

Your directions were very clear and worked perfectly.

Thank you. And I did select gmail in the now available drop down box.

northsea