Outlook 2013 no default mail client error

Make sure Outlook has been set as default (Outlook, File, Options, General tab near the bottom).

Then try disabling Norton Internet Security and try to send. There is also an email option in NIS which you should disable.

I have Office 2013, Adobe, Symantec Endpoint and iTunes and all works fine.

Also create a new, test Windows User Account (User Profile). Log into the new profile and test Outlook there. It could be profile damage.

Hi John. Thank you for the response.

I've made sure Outlook is the default and have reset it a few times. I've also uninstalled NIS and Adobe's software to no avail. As well, I've experienced this issue across multiple user accounts and multiple mail profiles. Nothing seems to make the problem go away other than using a different email client (Thunderbird in my case).

Thank you again. I'm still trying to figure this out.

Preston

Since the laptop is new, you might be best at this point to back it up completely and then do a factory install of Windows. I am not sure why this would not work for you, but it Outlook 2013 works fine for me.

Still having issues with this if anyone is able to assist I would appreciate it.

Did you do a detect and repair after removing the Microsoft Outlook registry key?

This article suggests that you should do that (backing up the registry in its entirety before you do anything)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/813745?wa=wsignin1.0

The article also has a MS Fix It solution in it, that should do everything you need automatically if you'd prefer.

Another thought, and this isn't based on science, just some things I've seen fix some pesky Office errors before:
Try running Outlook as an administrator.  Then uncheck the default email client tick box.  Close outlook.  Open again as admin.  Recheck the tickbox.  CLose outlook. Open as regular user and see if it worked.  Not an elegant solution but I've seen this kind of thing work before.

Hope this helps.

Hi Weinberk. Thank you for your help.

I tried both of your suggestions to no avail. I'm still having the same issue.

As per above, you may have to reinstall Windows (back up first). I have Office 2013 on a Windows 8.1 machine (my own) and a Windows 7 machine (another household laptop) and it works fine.

I'm not sure that it matters, but while I research further, can you let us know if you're running the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Office?  (I know it's the 64 bit version of Windows)

It is 64 bit Windows with 32 bit Office.

Edit: Thank you for your advice John. The reinstall Windows route is kind of a last option. I would like to see if I can get this resolved without going that route. Thank you. :)

32-bit Office 2013 runs happily on Windows 7 and Windows 8 both 64-bit.

@John, of course 32 bit office runs on x64.  The 32 bit settings are under Wow6432Node though.  In this case, I don't think it matters - I couldn't find any relevant settings under the MSO key.

@Prohet001:
What value do you have in your registry under the (Default) keys of:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\Mail  
and
HKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail

They are both set to Microsoft Outlook.

I checked the Wow6432Node also and it is set to Microsoft Outlook as well.

The weird thing about this is that if I install Thunderbird, the sendto: protocol works fine. With Outlook as my default mail client it doesn't.

:/

Also, I just spent 1.5 hours in a remote session with Microsoft tech support and the guy couldn't fix it and rebooted my computer and left without saying anything lol. Maybe a Windows reinstall is a good idea.

Sure sounds like there's something buggered up (how's that for technical?)

If you change the default to thunderbird, does the registry setting change?

I'm wondering if Norton installed some sort of hook that's intercepting the call, but not passing it onto Outlook for some reason.  Uninstalling should have fixed it, but maybe settings were left behind.  I'm really grasping at straws at this point.

Yes. The registry settings change to Thunderbird as the default. Maybe I should try just swapping out the Outlook MAPI dll for the Thunderbird one and seeing if that works.

Who knows.

After this it's looking like new Windows.

I found this which sounds like it might fix your issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/813745

I've requested that this question be closed as follows:

Accepted answer: 0 points for prophet001's comment #a40688116

for the following reason:

There was never an answer.

The answers I gave work for me and for my clients. But if not for you and there is no answer for you, then you must delete the question.

There was an answer it just was not listed here. Perhaps I should have clarified.

The issue was that the user did not have proper read access to a specific key of the registry. This issue was resolved by Microsoft. Should I mark this comment as the answer?

You either have to provide an answer that we can all see and post that as the answer, or else delete.

This is the solution to the aforementioned problem.