“Microsoft Outlook is Not Recognized as the Default Email Client”- Resolved!
User Query – “I have been using Outlook 2013 version for years. Yesterday when I attempted to send an email using the File or ‘Send by’ email command. Outlook throws an error message stated: “Outlook 2013 is not recognized as the default email client.” I tried to fix this issue by installing the new updates but the problem persists. Can anyone provide me an exact solution to troubleshoot this error urgently?”
If you are also experiencing the same issue, then read the blog thoroughly to get the efficient and reliable solution.
But before we proceed you should know the reasons why “Outlook is not default email client” issue occur in Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003. To delve into the depths of this, you need to read on!
Why Microsoft Outlook is not Recognized as Default Mail Client?
Well, here we listed some of the most common reasons behind getting the “Outlook not recognized as the default email client” error.
1: Improper installation of MS Office Suite products.
2: If you are accessing Outlook 64-bit application, and 32-bit applications are unable to read 64-bit configuration software.
3: Outlook PST file Corruption
How to Resolve “Outlook is Not Recognized as the Default Email Client”?
First of all, you need to check and assign Outlook as the default email client via the Control Panel settings.
1: Check & Assign Outlook as the Default Client
Follow the simple steps to fix the “Outlook is not recognized as the default email client” by verifying & assigning the Outlook as your default email client:
- Go to Start Menu and navigate through Control Panel >> Default Programs.
- Now, click on the Set your default programs link.
- Select the Default apps tab & under Email option, click on the email client assigned as the default email client application.
- From the drop-down menu, select Microsoft Outlook.
Now, Microsoft Outlook is set as the default email client for your current Windows OS.
In case, if your Outlook is already assigned as the default email client and you are still getting errors like “Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfil the messaging request”. Then it means that you are using a different bit version of Outlook or you have installed the application after installing MS Office Suite.
Case 1: If you are using 64 bit Outlook and other application are 32 bit
- Verify the bit configuration of your current Outlook application.
- Install the correct version as per the configuration of other programs installed on your machine.
Note: To manage large data file (around 2GB or more),Outlook with 64-bit configuration is recommended.
However, you can still work on 64-bit Outlook if other programs are of 32-bit configuration simply by modifying the settings in system’s Registry.
Case 2: Outlook is installed with Microsoft Office
If you have installed Outlook with the MS Office Suite then you can repair the Office installation manually.
- Go to Start >>Control Panel >> Programs and Features.
- Locate and select your Office or Outlook installation.
- Click on the Change button.
- Select Repair and Press the Continue button. Wait till the repair gets completed.
- Once the process is done, reboot your system and try accessing Outlook again.
Case 3: Home and Business 2010 C2R suite
Sometimes users might face this issue when they are using Home and Business 2010 C2R suite. It is installed on the virtual hard drive making the application not visible to the other applications.
However you can change the Windows Registry settings if you don’t want to uninstall the C2R suite for Microsoft Outlook 2010. The steps are as below.
1: Type regedit.exe in the search box and select the application to open it.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail
2: Right-click the Mail section, then select the Export.
3: Provide a location to save the registry file & click the Save button to store a backup file.
4: Again go to the Mail location, right-click on it and follow New > Key.
5: Provide the key name as Outlook64Bridge.
6: By using the same method, create a key namely DLLPath under Outlook64Bridge and then a new key with the name DLLPathEx under DLLPath.
7: Now, provide the path location of MAPI32.dll file.
8: The location would be –
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Outlook64Bridge\DLLPathEx
9: The path assigned to the keys is – (example)
“C:\WINDOWS\x86_microsoft-windows- \xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mapi32.dll”
10: Finally, set Outlook64Bridege as the default Mail client with this path –
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail”Outlook64Bridge”
Now you have learned all the manual workarounds to fix the “Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003 is not recognized as the default email client” error. But, still in case, the issue is not resolved and your Outlook application gets completely inaccessible. There is a possibility that any corruption or damage PST will lead to complete inaccessibility of your Outlook data.
In that scenario, even manual measures are not sufficient to repair the severe corruption of PST files. Hence, users need to use trusted third-party software.
PST data recovery tool is designed with advanced algorithms that can repair highly damaged files. With this tool, you can recover multiple files in bulk without any kind of data loss. All the emails, attachments, contacts details, calendars, tasks, notes, and journals can be recovered along with all their metadata properties.
Bringing It All Together
In this blog, we resolved one of the most recurrent issues i.e. “Outlook is not recognized as the default email client”. We have listed all he basic reasons that may lead to this error. Depending upon those causes we have mentioned the different resolutions to fix the “Microsoft Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003 is not the default email client”.
