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Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginner's Guide Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]

Tip 1129: Fix Send to Mail Recipient in Windows Explorer

Yes, I've been terribly remiss in not doing tips over the last few months. My New Years Resolutions were simple: get back on track with the Tips and get my hair cut the first of every month. I broke both resolutions by the end of the first week. It was cold and snowy and easy to skip the hair cut, but that excuse won't fly for Tips. :)

I received a "cold call" email from a person needing help. While I don't have time to respond to every email, I try to answer the ones that have quick and easy answers. The complaint sounds like an old issue and the fix is easy.

I have an issue. Rather a simple one that Microsoft cannot even fix. I cannot right-click my mouse to obtain the “send to email” function correctly on my 2010 Outlook which is running on a Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit platform.

This problem has come up several times in recent weeks, but it dates back a few years, possibly back to Windows 98 days. The solution is about as simple as it gets though (and works on all versions of Windows).

If you are missing the Mail Recipient shortcut in the Send to folder or it's not working:

  1. Go to the SendTo folder.
  2. Right-click and choose New > Text Document to create a text file in the folder.
  3. Rename the file MailRecipient.MAPIMail (do not use .txt extension).
  4. Press Enter.

SendTo command

Done. I think it takes longer to find the Send to folder than it does to fix the problem.

In Windows 8 or 10, the SendTo folder is at %appdata%\microsoft\windows\sendto. If you're still on Windows XP, it's at %USERPROFILE%\sendto. To use either shortcut, open Windows Explorer and type or paste the path in the Address bar and press Enter to to taken to the Send to folder location.

I was shocked that Microsoft couldn't fix it in 5 minutes flat. They certainly have a KB article on it somewhere. Hmmm. Bing couldn't find a KB article using typical search terms, Google couldn't find one. I have the instructions in an article at Slipstick.com, but its not the main point of the article and my article comes up after several articles with the wrong answer or that relate to a different problem. (DuckDuckGo did better than either Bing or Google, with my article near the top, but still no KB article.)

I'm not confident that this article is going to come up any more often, except maybe at DuckDuckGo, but the problem and solution is now back in it's own article, not buried in another article… and I might get back in the swing of writing tips. :)

Published March 13, 2014. Last reviewed on February 1, 2016.

Related posts:

Tip 361: Sending Files From Windows ExplorerWhen you send an attachment by right clicking on it and choosing Send, newer versions of Windows add a block of text to the messagTip 45: Send Attachments From WindowsTip 467: Send To RevisitedSend emailSend Links by E-mail in Windows XP

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Assuming Windows 7, 8, 10 - open Windows explorer and type or paste the following into the address bar and press Enter. It should open right to the Sendto folder.
      %appdata%\microsoft\windows\sendto

      Reply

  4. This creates a "plain text" formatted message in Outlook 2016 & Windows 7 for me. Following this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/234487 KB fixed it (at the bottom as I'm on 2016).

    Just create a shortcut in the to folder to your outlook exe and add "/a" on the end:
    "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\Outlook.exe" /a

    Reply

  6. IT STILL SAY'S NO EMAIL ASSOCIATED.... ALSO IF YOU RENAME FILE IT HAS A POPUP SAYING THAT IF YOU CHANGE THE .TXT IT WONT WORK AND IT DOESNT IN WIN 7 64 BIT. MAY BE PATTING SELF ON BACK ABOUT MS COUNLDNT FIX BUT I DID IS A BIT EARLY

    Reply

  7. Hay...... worked like a charm for me. I just copied all the files from Sendto folder from another machine running same OS as me.

    Reply

  9. I already have Mail Recipient showing in Send To. When I use it to email a photo (jpg), the re-size image window pops up, but nothing happens after selecting image size and clicking OK. It seems it's not integrated with Outlook 2013. Problem happened after upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 with existing installation of Office 2013 x64.

    I tried suggestion in http://support.microsoft.com/KB/234487

    and while this helps, it doesn't have the image re-size option.
    Any ideas?

    Reply

      • I have MailRecipient.MAPIMail file.... it does fire up the Image Resize dialogue, but doesn't connect with Outlook after clicking OK. I don't have anything configured for Windows Mail (which I suspect it is trying to connect to).

        In Control Panel / Default Programs / Set Default Programs, Outlook has all items checked, including Protocols | Mail To and MAPI | Send Mail.

      • Oh... some things won't work in 64bit. I know 64bit can prevent the sent to menu working in some apps but i thought it worked with this command. The only 64bit Outlook i have right now is running on Win10 and it errors with "The operating system is not presently configured to run this application."

      • I think it's tied up with Windows 8.1 as it had all been working fine until I upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1. Probably a registry key has been changed somewhere...

      • The reference to this Microsoft Support Article KB234487 worked perfectly !!! Many Many Thanks for providing the above link, I was searching everywhere to find a solution but found it here!!!

  11. Thankl you for this - I also followed on Slipstick.

    If like me you are having this issue trying to send photos from from
    desktop explorer to an Outlook recipient in Windows 8.1 / Office 365.
    Use this link but be sure to use 'Joseph's Script' if you want to use multiple files, it's an easy fix.

    Hope this helps somebody.

    http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/create-a-custom-send-to-shortcut/

    By the way hit the windows key+R and enter " shell:sendto " to
    take you straight to the folder where you will need to save the file, be
    sure to use the right file extension (not txt) it's all in the
    instructions on the link above.

    Reply

  13. sorry to bother you again- I have been looking at many other solutions and none of them worked either- after looking and looking at outlook settings I realize that my account I want to use as default is set up as POP/STMP (comcast)- I have two hotmail accounts I don't use to send pictures and files that are marked MAPI- could this be the issue?

    Reply

  14. I had send to mail recipient but it would not send from Explorer or other folders (normally the letter came up with attached in XP) (now windows 7 32 outlook 2010) that "solution" totally broke it- the file was already there -but I made the one you described and replaced the one in there- now I have no entry at all for mail recipient. The deleted file had one word entry in it-- it says Mail- that's it

    Reply

    • So the original Send To command in C:UsersusernameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsSendTo only said "Mail"?

      If you click a mailto on a website or use the file> Send to menu in other programs, does it work?

      Reply

      • Yes to both of those- I also used control panel>programs>outlook connector >repair—still not there in right click menu- I did restart after changing the files back (recycle bin>restore and delete file I made)

        Think I should use repair on entire ms office ?

      • I did sys restore- back to square one- can now see {send to mail recipient} but if I click a picture, I get a box to choose size and then no outlook comes up (tried all sizes and orig)

      • the default for email. Was my first attempt to fix it- so it was already set as default- tried fixmapi- nothing happened- one guy suggested “ownership “ of the .dll file?

        will have to wait got go to sleep- thanks for trying to help me- will try office repair

      • W10P: Had to go Settings, Default Apps and re-select Thunderbird as default Email after doing the MailRecipient.MAPIMail fix you recommended.

      • So last night after sys restore the option to mail recipient was showing- and now this AM , not there!!! So weird- no updates were done

      • No., no registry clean was used-I don’t know how to look up the error log or see if that was done- after using the restore my malware bytes is now broken too—I did another restore just now to try and fix that. I got the mail recipient back in the right click list but now it does not come up with a resize option as before…so didn’t fix the mail files problem and now got another issue more critical.
        I am new to Win 7 and the permissions and access is ridiculous- I have admin and I have tried changing all that , messed with UAC and ownership. XP was a good OS—and 7 is not an improvement in any way

      • I am seeing many others have this same issue- in the same folder is a file named desktop.ini with the following:

        [LocalizedFileNames]

        Mail Recipient.MAPIMail=@sendmail.dll,-4

        Desktop (create shortcut).DeskLink=@sendmail.dll,-21

        Compressed (zipped) Folder.ZFSendToTarget=@zipfldr.dll,-10148

        Documents.mydocs=@shell32.dll,-34575

        Fax Recipient.lnk=@%SystemRoot%system32FXSRESM.dll,-120

        If that helps at all

      • That is the ini file for the folder and those are the default Sendto shortcuts windows creates. You only see if it you are Showing Hidden Files and Folders and every special folder has an ini file.

        You can try reregistering the dll
        Press Windows key + R to open the Run command then type (or paste) the following and press Enter.
        regsvr32 sendmail.dll

      • I did sys restore so I can see the right click option now but -- tried above see pic

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