How to launch the default mail program

Don't know about the subject or attachments using your default mail system but ShellExecute will do a lot of what you want to do:

ShellExecute(Form1.Handle, 'Open', 'MailTo:Bloke@Somewhere.com', '', '', SW_SHOW);

A better way might be just to use MAPI:

uses mapi;

FUNCTION SendEMail(Handle : THandle; Mail : TStrings):Cardinal;
TYPE
  TAttachAccessArray = ARRAY [0..0] OF TMapiFileDesc;
  PAttachAccessArray = ^TAttachAccessArray;
VAR
  MapiMessage : TMapiMessage;
  Receip      : TMapiRecipDesc;
  Attachments : PAttachAccessArray;
  AttachCount : INTEGER;
  iCount      : INTEGER;
  FileName    : STRING;
BEGIN
  fillChar(MapiMessage, SizeOf(MapiMessage), #0);
  Attachments := NIL;
  fillChar(Receip,SizeOf(Receip), #0);
  IF Mail.Values['to'] <> ''
  THEN
  BEGIN
    Receip.ulReserved := 0;
    Receip.ulRecipClass := MAPI_TO;
    Receip.lpszName := StrNew(PChar(Mail.Values['to']));
    Receip.lpszAddress := StrNew(PChar('SMTP:' + Mail.Values['to']));
    Receip.ulEIDSize := 0;
    MapiMessage.nRecipCount := 1;
    MapiMessage.lpRecips := @Receip;
  END;

  AttachCount := 0;
  FOR iCount := 0 TO MaxInt
  DO
  BEGIN
    IF Mail.Values['attachment' + IntToStr(iCount)] = ''
    THEN
      BREAK;
    AttachCount := AttachCount + 1;
  END;
 
  IF AttachCount > 0
  THEN
  BEGIN
    GetMem(Attachments,SizeOf(TMapiFileDesc) * AttachCount);
    FOR iCount := 0 TO (AttachCount - 1)
    DO
    BEGIN
      FileName := Mail.Values['attachment' + IntToStr(iCount)];
      Attachments[iCount].ulReserved := 0;
      Attachments[iCount].flFlags := 0;
      Attachments[iCount].nPosition := ULONG($FFFFFFFF);
      Attachments[iCount].lpszPathName := StrNew(PChar(FileName));
      Attachments[iCount].lpszFileName := StrNew(PChar(ExtractFileName(FileName)));
      Attachments[iCount].lpFileType := NIL;
    END;
    MapiMessage.nFileCount := AttachCount;
    MapiMessage.lpFiles := @Attachments^;
  END;

  IF Mail.Values['subject'] <> ''
  THEN
    MapiMessage.lpszSubject := StrNew(PChar(Mail.Values['subject']));
  IF Mail.Values['body'] <> ''
  THEN
    MapiMessage.lpszNoteText := StrNew(PChar(Mail.Values['body']));

  Result := MapiSendMail(0, Handle, MapiMessage,MAPI_DIALOG*Ord(Handle <> 0) OR MAPI_LOGON_UI OR MAPI_NEW_SESSION, 0);

  FOR iCount := 0 TO (AttachCount - 1)
  DO
  BEGIN
    strDispose(Attachments[iCount].lpszPathName);
    strDispose(Attachments[iCount].lpszFileName);
  END;

  IF assigned(MapiMessage.lpszSubject)
  THEN
    strDispose(MapiMessage.lpszSubject);
  IF assigned(MapiMessage.lpszNoteText)
  THEN
    strDispose(MapiMessage.lpszNoteText);
  IF assigned(Receip.lpszAddress)
  THEN
    strDispose(Receip.lpszAddress);
  IF assigned(Receip.lpszName)
  THEN
    strDispose(Receip.lpszName);
END;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
VAR
  mail : TStringList
BEGIN
  mail := TStringList.Create;
  mail.values['to']      := 'Bloke@Geeza.com';
  mail.values['subject'] := 'A subject';
  mail.values['body']    := 'Some body text (line 1)';
  mail.values['body']    := 'Some more body text (line 2)';
  mail.values['attachment0'] := 'c:\winnt\winnt256.bmp';
  mail.values['attachment1'] := 'c:\winnt\winnt.bmp';
  sendEMail(Application.Handle, mail);
  mail.Free;
END;

The Neil

Listening

thanks for these answers. I will try them tomorrow and tell you

Regards, Marc

listen

Points go to Epsylon whos proposal was fully working and preferred by my assistant who found it more easy to understand

Thanks to you two

Regards, Marc