I’ve used Google Apps to handle email on both my cell phone accessory site and my development site for at least the last 3 years. It’s always bothered me that there wasn’t a simple way to set the default handling  for clicking on a mailto link to my google apps email instead of  Gmail which is the default after installing the Google toolbar which by the way I would also recommend installing if you don’t already have it. I believe that the Thunderbird email client is the default is you don’t have the Google toolbar. I could be wrong though and it’s really not that important.  Well anyway after years of being lazy I’ve finally went to the trouble of setting up my google apps domain to be the default mailto link handler. I though I would share with the world the necessary steps to accomplish this lofty goal.

1. Make sure your browser is up to date.
   So hear it goes first off these instructions are  for version 3.5 I’m actually using version 3.5.7 by the time you are reading this these instructions might be outdated. If you are using a previous version of Firefox upgrade it. There’s a reason why the browser was updated. There could have been a bug or security vulnerability. It’s important to keep your browser updated. If your not sure what version you are using open your browser and got to Help > Check For Updates. If there is an update available update your browser.
   

   Is it updated?

2. Advanced configuration options page.
   Keep these instructions open and either open a new window or a new tab and type about:config into the address bar of the new tab/window that you’ve just opened and then hit enter. You should get a warning message telling you to be careful click on the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button. this should take you to a big list of configuration variables. Be careful in here you could screw up your browser so don’t mess with anything other than what I’m about to tell you.
   

   let's config this bitch

3. Let’s edit the configuration variables. Your going to need to edit the following 3 configuration variables and set each one to true.
   • gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost
   • network.protocol-hndler.expose.mailto
   • network.protocol-handler.external.mailto

   Changing the variables value is as simple as double clicking on it’s name.

   

   set those variables

4. Copy and Replace
   Your going to copy and paste this code into your address bar and then replace Example.com in the two(2) places it appears, (#1)once in the URL and (#2)once is the string after the URL with the name of your domain that is using Google Apps email and you wish to configure.
   javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/a/Example.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","Example.com Google Apps Email")
   

   Replace the domain name

5. Run That JavaScript
   One you’ve copied and edited the above mentioned code into the address bar run it by hitting enter while your cursor is in the address bar. This will bring up a notice at the top of the page that says “Add Example.com Google Apps Email(mail.google.com) as an application for mailto links?” where Example.com will be the domain name that you entered in step #4. Click on the button on the right side of this message that says “Add Application”
   

   I really do want it

6. Now That it’s added make it the default.(optional*)
   In the FireFox menu go to Tools > Opptions > Applications > then scroll down to  mailto on the right side of the mailto label there should be a dropdown select the entry that we’ve just created in steps #5 and #6
   

   Set it to default

*If you don’t want  your new google apps entry to be the default skip step six and select always ask instead.

If you have multiple google apps accounts like I do just repeat steps # 4 and #5 for each domain that you would like to handle mailto links.

If you have any questions of comments about this tutorial be sure to let me know  in the comments section.

Thanks to Steve Novoselac at StevieNova.com he originally wrote these instructions for FireFox 3 (or at least that’s where I found them) I’ve just updated and embellished them for version 3.5.