Windows 7 – Cannot Choose Default Program from Open With Context Menu

Microsoft made the decision to not support Simple Mapi on gmail in Windows 7, so there is no solution possible without changing something, either in Windows or by installing a third-party product.

One solution found on the Internet is by replacing C:\windows\system32\mapi32.dl by an older version from XP or Vista (it is advised to back it up first). A report on this technique says :

Tried replacing mapi32.dll and Msmapi32.ocx with versions taken from an XP machine. Now you can send messages, but the default client seems to be ignored (on the machine I tested it kept using Outlook instead of Thunderbird).

If you do not wish to change Windows software, there are also products that try to correct the problem.

The open-source project Tvhgooglemapi might be a solution. Here is how it is described :

Tvhgooglemapi is a simple tool that pretends to be a real mail client to windows but really only uploads the mail to the drafts folder of gmail and then opens the draft in the default web-browser. For the user this is almost exactly the same as having the gmail web interface as the default mail-client for some windows applications (the only difference being that he has to login twice if he is not already logged in to gmail and doesn't let the tool remember the password.)

For a detailed description see Integrating Apache OpenOffice 4.0 with GMail using MAPI.

A commercial alternative is Affixa, whose basic version is free for personal use.

Another commercial alternative is MAPI4Webmail (19.80 euros personal license).

If by context menu you mean This Context Menu then you need to do a few simple things, as well as be an administrator. This worked for me but may not work for you, but I hope it does.

The first thing you want to do is head to NirSoft and download the ShellExView. After that you should run the program, and sort by Microsoft and Non-Microsoft. It should look like this.

^{(Click image to enlarge)}

Then select the grey ones that you need, right-click and "Enable Selected Items".