Set Gmail as default email in Windows 11

Stefan
Set Gmail as default email in Windows 11

In Windows 11, when you click an email link, Windows opens the request in the default app set for the link type. This will default to the Mail app if you have never made any changes to the default email app.

However, you can set Windows 11 so that an email-related link such as a “mailto” link opens by default in Gmail via the Google Chrome browser.

Several steps are involved, including configuring the default handling settings in Chrome and setting the default app for certain types of links or file types in Windows 11.

Follow the steps below to set Gmail, which opens in Chrome, as the default app for opening email links in Windows 11.

Set Gmail as the default email app in Windows 11

To get started, you first need to enable “Protocol Handlers” in Chrome. This allows Chrome to perform special tasks when clicking on a link.

Open Google Chrome, click on the Chrome menu at the top right and in the menu click on Settings. Click on Privacy and Security on the left. Then click on Site Settings and then on “Additional permissions” and on “Protocol Handlers”.

Enable the option: Sites can ask to process protocols.

Enable protocol handlers in Windows 11

Then use the Google Chrome browser to go to mail.google.com and log in with your Google account to open Google mail.

Once you are logged in, click the “Protocol Handlers” icon at the top right of the address bar and click Allow to allow mail.google.com to open email links. Then click Done.

Allow Gmail to open links from email

A new window will open in Windows 11 to change default apps. In the search box type: mailto. Then click on the result to replace the default Mail app with Gmail in the Google Chrome browser.

Read also
Enable or disable online speech recognition in Windows 11

customize mailto shortcut to Google Chrome browser

A window opens. Click on Google Chrome and then click OK.

always open mailto shortcut with google chrome

You have now set up Google Chrome to open shortcuts with Gmail via the Google Chrome browser.

If you wish to restore the Mail app, repeat the step above and instead of letting the Google Chrome browser handle the “mailto” shortcuts, select the Mail app.

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I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!


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9 comments
  1. Dear, thank you very much for showing me how to add the gmail icon to the taskbar in Windows 11, I have been looking for it for a long time but never found it properly. Thanks.
    Can this also be done with the calendar in Gmail?

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