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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app Apps
Tiger only hintWhen I switched from using my ISP's mail to using Gmail, I found myself no longer using Apple's Mail.app at all. I don't want to outright delete it, as it's how I get my ISP mail, but I don't want it to launch unless I specifically need it. Trouble is, in Firefox the 'Copy Link Location' item in the contextual menu is right below the 'Send Link' item. And if I go to copy a URL from a link and miss the right option by a pixel or two, I get the bouncing postage stamp and have to wait until it's finished doing its thing. (It doesn't help that I'm in the process of switching from mouse to Wacom tablet.)

So I went into Automator, and built a workflow containing one item: Finder, Get Selected Finder Items. I left all the fields blank, then saved it as an application. Once done with that, I went into Mail.app's Preferences, and chose the workflow application I had just created as my default mail reader. That way, if I accidentally hit the 'Send Link' item, it just opens that meaningless app and closes it just as quickly.

[robg adds: Another way to disable this, specifically within Firefox only, is to enter about:config in Firefox's URL bar. This will bring up a page of defaults; in the filter box, enter mailto. Three entries should show, including network.protocol-handler.external.mailto. Double-click this entry to set it to false, then close the window. While this will disable the Send Link option, note that it will also prevent any mailto links on a page from working. I'm sure there may be other solutions as well...]
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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app | 9 comments | Create New Account
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Use Greasemonkey to rewrite mailto links
Authored by: njnystrom on Mar 09, '06 07:53:43AM

If you have the Greasemonkey extension to Firefox installed, you can use this script:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/595
to rewrite mailto links to take you to the gmail compose page instead.

---
Nate

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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: dstrelau on Mar 09, '06 07:54:43AM
If you're thinking about specifically GMail, just go grab the GMail Notifier. It allows you to then set your default mail program to 'GMail,' which means that you get a GMail compose window whenever you click on a mail-to link.

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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: benlindell on Mar 09, '06 10:07:41AM

I didn't look to double check this, but I believe that RCDefaultApplications preference pane, should be able to do this.

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/RCDefaultApp.shtml



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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: peragrin on Mar 09, '06 01:07:59PM

Not so much a hint but an extra. I use gmail, but I also have mail.app setup to use gmail.

I can send email from mail.app using my gmail account.

On the plus side, Mail.app will download all mail off the gmail server. So set it up to leave new mail on the server, and you can easily have all your mail in two locations. This makes it easy to search your mail while offline, using spotlight, or online using gmail search.

Also my mail.app is normally off. so it would launch on the click of a mailto link.

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I thought once I was found but it was only a dream



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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: Anonymous on Mar 09, '06 05:52:27PM

Same here. I use gmail because of the POP access. My ISP mail and as many gmail accounts as I want, all in Mail.app.



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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: vinc17 on Mar 09, '06 05:15:14PM

Is there a way to execute a Perl script (for instance) instead of launching Mail.app?

I've written a Perl script that takes the mailto URL in argument and executes the Mutt MUA in an Emacs window, and I would like to use it.



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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: efindel@earthlin on Mar 11, '06 03:03:09PM

You can do it the same way the poster disabled it -- by creating an Automator action and making that the default mailer. One of the choices in Automator is "run a shell script", and there's a choice of shells to run it with -- with Perl being one choice.

So, you could either choose Perl as the shell and cut-and-paste your code in, or use another shell and have it run your existing Perl script.



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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: vinc17 on Mar 16, '06 05:03:33PM

I've tried with Automator: I've selected the shell /bin/bash and typed:

/Users/vinc17/bin/mutt-mailto "$@"

I've chosen "Pass input as arguments". Then I saved this as an application, and chose this application for "mailto:" URLs (thanks to the "Default Apps" tool). But when I click on a mailto URL, the application crashes:

Date/Time: 2006-03-17 01:46:28.470 +0100
OS Version: 10.4.5 (Build 8H14)
Report Version: 4

Command: Mutt-mailto
Path: /Applications/Mutt-mailto.app/Contents/MacOS/Mutt-mailto
Parent: WindowServer [64]

Version: 1.0.2 (63)
Build Version: 72
Project Name: Automator
Source Version: 630000

PID: 3007
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BREAKPOINT (0x0006)
Code[0]: 0x00000001
Code[1]: 0x909c8cc0


Thread 0 Crashed:
0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x909c8cc0 _objc_trap + 0
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x909c8c34 _objc_error + 76
2 libobjc.A.dylib 0x909c8bc4 __objc_error + 64
3 com.apple.AutomatorFramework 0x963146d8 -[AMRunner stop:] + 160
4 com.apple.AutomatorFramework 0x962f0e00 -[AMAction run:] + 1824
5 com.apple.AutomatorFramework 0x962f05b8 -[AMBundleAction doRun:] + 92
[...]



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Disable auto-launching of Mail.app
Authored by: michaelturussa on Mar 09, '06 10:40:25PM

I don't really understand why switching to Gmail would translate to no longer using Mail--Gmail has POP functionality, and using a web-based email client that automatically refreshes for regular email use is cumbersome, irritating, and it slows your browser.

Why would anyone stop using Mail.app or a similar client-side mail program?



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