Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Monday

Set the default email program on Mac OS X?

Mail is set as the default email program on our Mac, so when we happen to click on an email link in anything (say, our browser), the Mail app automatically opens up and creates an email message. We don't want that, we'd like to be able to designate our chosen email apps (I use Thunderbird, she uses Entourage). How do you change this?

While there's a lot about Mac OS X that I think is wonderfully crafted, changing the default email program (or Web browser, for that matter) is pretty baffling. In the old days, there was a separate Control Panel for changing all these settings, but now you need to know the trick...