IE8 and mailto: ??

**don94403** · don94403, October 10th, 2009 08:33 PM

I was helping a friend with his web page and showed him how to scramble his email address for the mailto: link. Worked fine in other browsers, but wouldn't work in IE8, just ignored the link, no error msg. So I tried a plain mailto: link and the same results. I checked his browser settings and scripts are enabled and I don't see anywhere that the security settings are blocking it. Then I googled "IE8 mailto" and found a number of others who are reporting the same thing, although not as many as I would have thought if this is really a bug. But no solutions or explanations. Anybody know anything about this?

**jmurrayhead** · jmurrayhead, October 10th, 2009 09:12 PM

Not sure why it isn't working in IE8...but, using mailto: is bad idea, IMO, anyway...even when scrambling the email address. The best thing to do is to provide a web form for the user to send messages. This is a common practice, something that users are used to, and more convenient for the user, as well.

**don94403** · don94403, October 10th, 2009 10:04 PM

You're probably right, but it's still used quite widely and there's some advantage to seeing the headers from the sender's server, at least I think so. I've suggested using a web form, but my friend isn't skilled at scripting and I don't want to do it for him (I would if it was PHP, but his host doesn't support it). In any case, mailto: works in all other browsers I've tried, even IE7, and it just doesn't make sense that IE8 would not recognize it. There must be millions of mailto:s out there! Thanks for your comments, anyway.

**jmurrayhead** · jmurrayhead, October 10th, 2009 10:12 PM

Hmmm...I just tried a mailto: link in my installation of IE8 and it worked with no problems. Do you all have the latest version? Mine is: 8.0.6001.18702

Anyway, I'll still stand behind my previous statement...plus, there are TONS of web form email examples for several programming languages. It could be as simple as sending him the proper example. And I'm pretty sure you can still capture the header information.

**don94403** · don94403, October 10th, 2009 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by jmurrayhead

Hmmm...I just tried a mailto: link in my installation of IE8 and it worked with no problems. Do you all have the latest version? Mine is: 8.0.6001.18702

Hah! I'm running the same version and they don't seem to work for me. Now I'll take a closer look, possibly I'm using incorrect syntax? I thought I knew how to do it, I've done it dozens of times.

Anyway, I'll still stand behind my previous statement...plus, there are TONS of web form email examples for several programming languages. It could be as simple as sending him the proper example. And I'm pretty sure you can still capture the header information.

Yes? How? With a web form, you send the message from your own server, it never goes through the web visitor's SMTP. What I was referring to is the ability to identify who the real originator is, or at least what SMTP server he uses. Can't see any way for that to happen if you send it from your own server!

**cfarahiii** · cfarahiii, January 28th, 2010 01:05 PM

i have the same issue mailto: not working i get a blank page then nothing.

one thing i do to verify the syntax is rightmouse click on the mailto url and copy the url text into the address line of i.e. 8 then the exchange client opens successfully

any fixes for this yet?

**merlinof2** · merlinof2, March 24th, 2010 05:33 PM

using a web form may be practical for some, however I prefer the mailto as I wind up with a copy of what was sent in my own mail system.

That being said, I find the same issue... (currently on Vista Ultimate, not by choice, with IE8, FF 3.6.2, Chrome) sites that have worked for me for years that still work with Firefox and Chrome, suddenly cannot trigger a "mailto" with IE8. In fact, IE8 doesn't even recognize it as a protocol/link... the cursor never changes shape... yet it works on the ImageMap on the same page ***stupid site won't let me post an example URL so you have no idea of what it's doing*** it also won't pull up a linked PDF on the same page.. that's just one example. This site worked perfectly with IE7.

The problem is with IE8, not the webpage.

Trying to set the default programs has no effect. The actual settings available to do that are woefully inadequate.

any suggestions anyone?

**jmurrayhead** · jmurrayhead, March 25th, 2010 09:53 AM

Just curious, but if you go to your Control Panel, double-click Folder Options, look for URL:MailTo Protocol, and then click Advanced, what application do you see this associated with, if any?

**merlinof2** · merlinof2, March 25th, 2010 04:14 PM

Okay, Control Panel, double-click Folder Options, look for URL:MailTo Protocol, and then click Advanced <there is no such location on Vista Ultimate.>

Control Pane, double-click Folder Options yields three tabs, General/View/Search

None of which have anything relating to protocols of any type...

Now, Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a File Type.... yields a list of extensions, and at the bottom is a grouping of Net protocols..

double clicking MAILTO shows two icons, Thunderbird & MSoft Mail... can't do anything with either. double clicking on either closes the window with nothing done.. the "always use" selection is greyed out...

just love this pile-o-crap... please please please let me use Linux at the office....!!!!

**tb7x60l1** · tb7x60l1, March 30th, 2010 04:07 PM

I ran into this issue today and managed to stumble on a resolution, so I thought I'd share.

For some background; the exact issue I was having was clicking on a mailto link in IE8 seemed to refresh the page without doing anything. Ctrl+click pulls up a new tab with the stock "Internet Explorer cannot display the page" error. Right+click and Properties shows the Protocol as "Unknown Protocol" and the Address as a .dll?mailto:sample@sample.ca (I don't recall the exact .dll). Clicking on the same link in Firefox pulled up Outlook as expected.

I asked the guy next to me with the exact same machine, Vista Business, IE8, Outlook 2007, AV, etc.. to try the link.. inexplicably it worked for him. The only standout difference between our systems was he used IE8 as his default browser, whereas I use Firefox.

So I switched my default browser to IE8 (using the Start \ Default Programs control panel applet), and tried the link again. I'm now prompted with the "Leaving Internet Explorer Protected Mode" warning, though clicking "Allow" pulls up Outlook as expected. (I don't think I've ever seen this warning before; so it may be relevant, though I can't say for sure). I set Firefox back to my default browser using the Start \ Default Programs applet and tried IE8 again and it still works.

When I first installed Firefox, I allowed it to change my defaults (using the prompt when it first starts) so I've tried various combinations of using the Default Programs applet vs. allowing the browser change my default and am unable to reproduce the issue. For what it's worth it seems to be permanently fixed for me.

Hope this helps,

Cheers

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