How do you set up an alias on your mail?

How do I set Yahoo! Mail as my default E-Mail client! (LONG)!!!?

• I am running Windows Vista Home Premium using Messenger version 9, although I have tried installing previous versions of 8.X from oldversion.com and those versions are also giving me the same trouble)! But let's stick to 9 as that is the version I'm using now... I finally got a reply back from Yahoo technical support regarding this missing "Yahoo Browser Services" application. They said they are no longer including this in any version of messenger and in order to make Yahoo! Mail your default E-mail client on your computer, you must include "install toolbar" when you install messenger (apparently the toolbar now has a Yahoo! Mail default E-Mail client setting in it)...notice that I said "APPARENTLY"! However when including the toolbar in the messenger installation it does not actually install any kind of Yahoo! Mail plugin. After installation I attempted to verify if my default E-Mail client had been changed by going to the default programs section in Windows Vista and sure enough, Yahoo! Mail was NOT listed (in ANY of the sections/catagories)! I then uninstalled the toolbar and reinstalled it via toolbar.yahoo.com and this time the installation works (during the installation it asks you if you want to install the Yahoo! Mail plugin to make Yahoo! Mail your default E-Mail client). Finally I thought I had found out how to get this installed correctly (but not quite)! Before I get into that let's address how the toolbar that is part of the messenger installation is NOT installing the mail plugin like the technical support guy told me it would. Only if you install the toolbar seperately from messenger by going to toolbar.yahoo.com does it then install this mail plugin! All of these problems that I 've currently noted so far (in this post and the previous post that I have linked here above) clearly demonstrates that Yahoo has NO CLUE what they are doing! OK so now I finally have this "mail plugin" installed and I'm thinking great now I can finally use mailto: links on the internet (as I had previously been doing using previous versions of messenger (before 9.0 they all included the "Yahoo Browser Services" plugin/installation). Well once again I was proven WRONG! Before I tested out to see if it now worked I went to the default programs section once again in Vista (under the control panel). Under "associate a file type or protocol with a program" I scroll down to the "protocols" section and for the "mailto:" it now shows that Yahoo! Mail is set as the default E-Mail client HOWEVER the icon that is used is NOT the offical "Yahoo! Mail" icon, instead it's some tiny square icon with a tiny picture of what appears to be a picture of two 'gears' inside the icon box (right there a red flag went up with me)! Anyways keeping the "mailto:" protocol highlighted I then click on "change program" at the top of the window. When this window opens up, it clearly shows Yahoo! Mail (WITH THE CORRECT YAHOO! MAIL ICON-mailbox with a "Y" over it) as one of my default choices for E-mail, along with Windows Mail. I click on the Yahoo! Mail icon however that doesn't seem to change the icon back in the main display, it continues to show a pictured icon with two tiny pictures of 'gears' inside it. To make a long story short (and I'm really sorry for the legnth of this but this is clearly Yahoo's problem and fault) I'm only now 50 percent closer to being able to use "mailto" links correctly with Yahoo! Mail on the internet. When I now click on a "mailto" links on a webpage, a "internet explorer security" window pops up (yellow banner at the top) and it informs me that "windows host process (rundll32)" wants to access the internet and the publisher is Microsoft! There is a check box at the bottom of this popup window "do not show me the warning for this program again" however the check box is greyed out and I can't place a check mark in it! Anyways clicking on "allow" for the secuirty window then loads up Yahoo! Mail! So basically now anytime I want to use a "mailto: link on the net, I have to go through this damn "internet explorer security" window to get to Yahoo! Mail and it's EXTREMELY annoying!!! If I go into the "security" tab for IE (sorry but I don't use other browsers) and I uncheck the "protected mode" option at the bottom of the screen, when clicking on "mailto" links on web pages it then takes me straight to Yahoo! Mail with no inturruption of that security window popping up...however being out of "protected mode" is making my computer to be more unsafe...that is not 'flying' with me at al! To end this, there is obvioulsy a HUGE flaw in Yahoo's program and it's clearly NOT WORKING RIGHT! I have Googled this problem and I can't find any solution to fix this (without compromising my computer's security). I'm begging anyone...CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME HERE TO GET THIS FIXED? Yahoo is clearly 'out of the loop' on this and either have no idea what is going on with their own software, or they want to act a

• Answer:

  Sorry Scott, I can't help you-----BUT-----I did want to thank you for this posting. It's full of information and understandable.