Hey today I started up firefox ( fully patched) and I randomly clicked on "tools" and I saw a thing that said i had 13 "unread messages" well i clicked on it and nothing happens! what gives? what is that anyway?
Printable View
Hey today I started up firefox ( fully patched) and I randomly clicked on "tools" and I saw a thing that said i had 13 "unread messages" well i clicked on it and nothing happens! what gives? what is that anyway?
Looks like some Outlook feature cuz it opens outlook in mine, do u use outlook?
Actually it should open whatever email program you have set as default, FF opens my Thunderbird... :)
Hi,
I'm using Linux (Fedora Core 5) with Firefox 1.5.0.1. It has the same kind of "Read Mail" thing too. When I click it it opens a mail client. So, I guess that's what it does.
I think it does open Outlook ( which I dont use) because if you click the "new message" button below it it opens outlook. but if I dont have outlook why would I have 13 new messages in it?
What is your default email client? or do you use gmail or hotmail?
I have both hotmail and gmail... actually I use both about the same if that makes any sense.
I'm not sure if FF is connected to anything Hotmail (net passport type thing) but gmail may be a different thing, have you checked your gmail account to see how many emails are sitting there....?
Also do you have an email account provided to you by your ISP, if so your Outlook Express may be set up for that email addy, I know you said you don't use outlook, but what do you mean when you say you don't have it? it's not there or you just don't use it....?
SourceQuote:
Integrate email and news
Firefox does not include a mail client: this functionality has been outsourced to its cousin, Thunderbird. However, a quick glance at some of the menu options might make you think the Firefox developers didn't get that memo:
File→Send Link
For emailing the current URL
Tools→New Message
For composing a new email message (Windows only)
Tools→Read Mail
For opening your mail client to read new messages (Windows only)
In addition to these menu items, there are frequent mailto: or news: links on the Web that should allow you to send an email message or read a newsgroup. Firefox contains just enough glue to pass all these potential actions on to another program.
The good news is that if you have a default mail program set up on your operating system, all of these functions will integrate seamlessly with that program without any additional work. If you are running Firefox on Unix/Linux and you don't have a default mail program set up on Linux, or if you want Firefox to use a different program, you can integrate Firefox with your mail program by setting the following preferences:
network.protocol-handler.external.mailto /* set to true, no default */
network.protocol-handler.app.mailto /* set to filepath, no default */
For example, if you want Linux Firefox to launch Thunderbird when you click on a mailto: link, set the network.protocol-handler.app.mailto preference to the following filepath, if that happens to be where Thunderbird's startup program is located:
/usr/local/bin/thunderbird/thunderbird
To do the same thing for links that use the news:, snews:, or nntp: protocols, verify that the following preferences are set to true:
network.protocol-handler.external.news
network.protocol-handler.external.snews
network.protocol-handler.external.nntp
Then, set one or more of these matching preferences to the name of your newsreader:
network.protocol-handler.app.news
network.protocol-handler.app.snews
network.protocol-handler.app.nntp
Another option for handling mailto: links is to use the Launchy extension, discussed below.
If you prefer to use a Web mailer, such as Gmail or Hotmail, there's a solution for that, too. The Webmailcompose extension allows you to override the behavior of mailto: links by directing you to a Web mail provider of your choice. It also replaces the various mail-related menu options with a list of supported services from which you can choose.
Integrate Email Message Counts
On Windows operating systems, there are two additional items under the Tools menu: Read Mail and New Message. The New Message button will start a new message in your default mail client (or whatever client you have chosen to override the default), just as if you had clicked on a mailto: link with no recipient. The Read Mail option does the same thing, except that it also displays how many new unread messages you have. That might seem curious, given that Firefox has no mail functionality of its own.
In fact, you might find that it indicates you have 125 new messages, but you've already checked and are sure you don't. Or maybe it reads "(0 new)," even when you know you have unread mail waiting for you.
The problem here is that Firefox is not actually checking to see if you have new mail but rather is relying on Windows to provide this information. More specifically, Firefox is looking in the Windows Registry for the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\UnreadMail. If the key exists, it queries the MessageCount registry property for the default mail account (or the first one that is listed if there is no default). This property is updated by mail utilities such as Outlook Express. It is not used by Thunderbird or other third-party mail clients. Therefore, the text in the Tools menu will be accurate only if your mail client tells Windows this information on a regular basis.
Hey Hey,
To follow up with what dalek posted.. lock your computer (windows key + l)... You'll see XX unread messages..
This is reading from the same spot... It's updated by Outlook Express, Outlook and Hotmail (assuming you clicked that little button that said associate my passport account with my Windows account)... So it's most likely reading your hotmail account but doesn't know how to open hotmail because it's configured to open your "Default mail program"
Peace
HT
Outlook isnt in my programs list but, I dont think its uninstalled totally because you know sometimes if you go a website and it has the email for the person posted on the site eg: mailto [email protected] if i click the link there it brings up the person's email address in outlook express even though i dont use outlook
HT: When I lock my pc all it says is " 2 programs running" nothing about messages but I do know what your talking about because I have seen that message before. and btw im not quite sure what windows has as my default mail client.
You're default mail client will be whatever opens when you click on a mailto: link... That's why you see it open when You click on an address even though you never user it...Quote:
Originally posted here by The Texan
Outlook isnt in my programs list but, I dont think its uninstalled totally because you know sometimes if you go a website and it has the email for the person posted on the site eg: mailto [email protected] if i click the link there it brings up the person's email address in outlook express even though i dont use outlook
HT: When I lock my pc all it says is " 2 programs running" nothing about messages but I do know what your talking about because I have seen that message before. and btw im not quite sure what windows has as my default mail client.
As for not seeing it right now... that's quite possibly because you've read the mail in hotmail... Unfortunately it's buggy and not always perfect... They'll be plenty of time that I'll read my email at work and lock my computer and it'll still say I have two unread messages.... but yeah no need to freak out... it's just a poor implementation of a poorly written feature :) ... Microsoft made something that wasn't the greatest and Firefox implemented it and made it slightly worse heh...
Peace,
HT
ok thanx for answering my question but let me ask you one more how to I go about reading these "13 unread messages"?
Tex...... if you want to get around it and still use FF, go ahead and get Thunderbird, works well with FireFox, even with all of it's inferiorities....... :p
Thunderbird
I think to get rid of this you will need to open your Outlook Express or use one of these registry tweaks by Kellys Corner , there is a solution....
Luck
ok thanx for the suggestions :)
You'd have to find all the software that is reporting there... and read the email contained in that software (or on those web accounts)... so Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, and possibly others (I've never seen, nor had the need to find, a comprehensive list)...Quote:
Originally posted here by The Texan
ok thanx for answering my question but let me ask you one more how to I go about reading these "13 unread messages"?
If everything is read in all those places... it's a matter of updating firefox... You could check the registry key that dalek posted... and ensure that it's also back to 0.. if it's stuck at 13 (maybe a bug or glitch caused it to not reset) then you could manually change it to 0... or you could try a reboot... or just closing out all the open browsers you have and restarting one after their closed... I'm not sure of the criteria that firefox uses for checking the key to refresh... or the frequency at which it checks..
dalek: How will switching to Thunderbird fix the problem??? It's a read mail problem... and if Tex is using hotmail Thunderbird isn't going to assist him at all.. he'd be better of removing the associate my passport account with Windows checkbox...
Peace
HT