A few months (?) ago, Ms. Sumn offered this suggestion for making a Right-Click...Send To...Mail Reciepient email look like a regular Outlook email, not the boring plain text type:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/microso...

Basically you create a shortcut in the Send To folder with these properties:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /a %1

I passed this tip around the office and it worked for a while, but has recently stopped working on everyone's machine.

We are getting a message that says:

"The command line argument is not valid. Verify the switch you are using."

Anybody have any thoughts on this matter?

Source : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312346

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:
1. On the Start menu, point to All Programs or Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.
2. In Windows Explorer, edit the file type. To do this, follow these steps, as appropriate for the version of Windows that you are running:

• For Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, follow these steps:
a. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
b. On the File Types tab, click URL:MailTo Protocol under the (NONE) section, and then click Advanced.
c. Under Actions, click Open, and then click Edit.

d. If you are running Microsoft Outlook 2002, type the following text under Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OUTLOOK.EXE" -c IPM.Note /m "%1"

If you are running Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, type the following text under Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\OUTLOOK.EXE" -c IPM.Note /m "%1"

If you are running Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, type the following text under Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" -c IPM.Note /m "%1"
e. Click OK two times.

• For Microsoft Windows 98, follow these steps:
a. On the View menu, click Folder Options.
b. On the File Types tab, click URL:MailTo Protocol, and then click Edit.
c. Under Actions, click Open, and then click Edit.
d. If you are running Microsoft Outlook 2002, type the following text under Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OUTLOOK.EXE" -c IPM.Note /m "%1"
If you are running Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, type the following text under Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\OUTLOOK.EXE" -c IPM.Note /m "%1"
e. Click OK two times.

3. In Internet Explorer, verify the e-mail program. To do this, follow these steps:
a. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
b. On the tab, change the default mail program to Outlook Express in the E-mail box, and then click Apply.
c. In the E-mail box, change the default mail program back to Outlook, and then click Apply.
d. Close the Internet Options dialog box.
e. Click Start, click Run, type mailto:, and then click OK.

DO REPLY IF IT WORKS OR DOES NOT WORK

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not sure that you are trying to solve the correct problem. Please correct me if I am misunderstanding something.

The KB article you referenced is for issues related to "mailto" not working. Our problem is that "Send to" no longer works with the tip suggested here:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/microso...

Allow me to explain further:

As I'm sure you know, if you right-click a filename and choose "Send to...Mail recipient", a new mail message will open with the file attached. Assuming Outlook is the default mail app, then, by default, this message will be in plain text, without the user's auto signature, rich text fonts, etc. Rather boring.

By following the tip found at the windowsitpro site, Outlook is supposed to (in fact, used to) open a mail message that looks exactly like a new mail message opened from within Outlook, with all of the user's custom settings.

The problem we are having is that we are now getting the error message I noted above when we use the shortcut created via that tip.

The default, plain text Send to...Mail recipient still works, as do all mailto links in webpages. It is only the shortcut we created by using the windowsitpro tip that no longer works.

Unfortunately, these are corporate-imaged machines and our tech-support line doesn't support anything but the default configuration, so we can't call them about this issue.

okie got you...will do some research and try to find some answer...sorry for the wrong information..

one thing you can try is to remove that shortcut and create that shortcut once again...

Or

Try creating the shortcut again with this command

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c ipm.note /a

Stop your research! The command you suggested seems to work. I had to change OFFICE12 to OFFICE11, but that was all.

Can you explain the difference between the
/a %1 and /c ipm.note /a switches?

More importantly, can you explain why /a %1 stopped working? Since these are corporate-imaged machines I'd like to know what might cause switches to fail so we can be prepared the next time something like this happens.

Thanks again!

I don't know the difference but i know that /c ipm.note creates an new blank e-mail message and when you specify /a it means you can add a attachement to it.

I verified that, when you remove the /a you can't right click on any file and click send to. It wont open up at all. Similarly when you add /a you can continue to add attachements as you are doing now.

I think the new switch that is working for you is just another way of doing things beacuse the output that you are getting is the same.I checked for the /a %1 switch but couldnt find anything regarding it. Maybe some windows patch might have conflicted or you might have installed a newer version of office. Reasons can vary but still will try to look if its a known issue

You can find more information about switches on this link

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/c...

Thanks again.

Everything is working fine except that it would be nice if the users could select multiple files and create the e-mail.

Granted, this didn't work with the other switches either, but it would be nice if it did.

At least the short-cut that you provided produces a "good looking" email with one attachment and then they can attach the rest.

Thanks!