XPost: alt.windows7.general, alt.comp.os.windows-10
On 9/21/2023 11:23 AM, Wendelin Uez wrote:
For an old workstation running under WIN 8.1 we have a MS Wireless Comfort Keyboard 2000.
This keyboard has built-in buttons for fast app access, f.e. one button starting the standard Windows mail program.
Times ago the mail program on this PC was changed from Microsoft Mail to Thunderbird, and obviously the standard mail program was changed to Thunderbird by its setup program because the keyboatd now accessed Thunderbird just as expected. This worked
for years for a couple of mail addresses.
Due to a problem with the actual Thunderbird update where the installation run into the problem that the mail password was no longer stored and so mail access to the mailboxes managed by this PC was no longer possible.
Since I hope to be able to repair this problem and reuse some years old mails I installed for the meantime Thunderbird Portable on the same system which works fine except that it does not, of course, register itself as standard mail program, and so a
keyboard hit still runs the old damaged version instead of the new Thunderbird Portable.
But I want to change the called mail program from the old version into Thunderbird Portable.
So I have the choice of two variants both running into problems:
First, changing the standard mail program in Windows:
Internet search for standard mail program registration didn't show a registry key which defines the standard mail program - there are a lot of keys referring to "mailto" entries, but I found none which seems to change the key read out by the keyboard
driver.
If anyone knows where I can replace the old mailprog exe name by a newer one I would be glad to try out.
Second, editing the keyboard data:
On the orther hand Microsoft seems to have a program to edit the keyboard functions, the name was something like "Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard", the packed download file named MouseKeyboardCenter_64bit_DEU_14.41.exe (for German language). This software
is still available from Microsoft but calling it does only expand the file, start the installation and ends up in a message box that it couldn't can install the software probably due to missing system requirements. Whatever these requirements might be.
It looks like it is running for WIN 10 or WIN 11 only and no longer for WIN 8.1.
if anyone knows from where I can load an older version of this file suitable for WIN 8.1 I would be glad to test it
A third way (which is a Thunderbird question rather than a Windows one) could be to pass the old mail data folders to the newer portable application, but I am not sure if this would work.
if anyone has an idea how to pass old Thunderbird data to Thunderbird Portable (ok, no Windows problem, I know) then I would be happy to test it
1) A Portable application is not integrated into the Install Systems.
win32 and Metro Apps have separate tracking. A Portable is a third, untracked type.
2) Default Mail is protected by crypto. Once a few years pass, we don't know
whether these hacks work or not. The reason the developer does not "reveal all mechanisms",
is he could be charged under DMCA (the same chill technique that prevents reverse engineering
or analysis of the new Skype protocol).
The following blurb is copied from another post.
***********************************************
http://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
"Download
here you can download SetUserFTA v1.7.1
http://kolbi.cz/SetUserFTA.zip
SetUserFTA.zip:d551295c779bdb3750ddba8e781c21a3dd42a55578f818e9c789b2ba1b4dcf47
SetUserFTA.exe:791dc39f7bd059226364bb05cf5f8e1dd7ccfdaa33a1574f9dc821b2620991c2
SetUserFTA.exe .pdf AcroExch.Document.DC
this will associate .pdf file with Acrobat Reader for the current user.
"
Another example, SetDefaultBrowser (I haven't looked at this at all).
http://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/11/10/setdefaultbrowser-set-the-default-browser-per-user-on-windows-10-and-server-2016-build-1607/
**************************************************
Some of the things, you might edit the Registry to get what you want.
If you could override the Default behavior (using command line and
pointing the program at the Portable folder contents), then the tools within
Windows 10 could finish the job.
It would take at least an afternoon of careful experiments to make progress.
Maybe there is a menu item, to include arbitrary executables for the job,
but somehow I doubt it.
This answer is for Windows 10. The other OSes work differently,
and may be easier to adjust. They all have similar objectives,
but the implementation can be quite different.
Paul
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