"Set Email Application" pop-up... is this Windows?

emailpopup · 21 Dec 2015

Sorry if this has been asked before, I did a search and found nothing similar.

Since my Windows 10 upgrade I've been able to deal with most of the changes from Windows 7 (which I loved) and stick with 10... except for one annoyance. Every now and then I get a pop-up stating that I can't perform an email action until I've set a default email app, or something similar (actually- pausing writing this to wait for the pop-up so I can take a screenshot of it) ... (there we go, it triggered- see ahead):

I've pressed nothing that should spawn an email app. Checking this pop-up in task manager to find more details doesn't show anything that hints at what app launched it, and I never had this pop-up in windows 7 obviously, as email wasn't so integrated to the OS, so I'm not sure if this pop-up is from Windows 10 or not? I never install apps that would send background emails, and I'm extremely careful with what I install, where I install from, and if anything's ever remotely fishy I'll run all the spyware/anti-virus I have that I trust. Nothing shows up when I run scans currently, including a deep scan with Malwarebytes on both of my drives, so I'm GUESSING this is a Windows 10 thing? What bothers me is I've turned off all Windows 10 background emails / crash email configurations, so nothing should be triggering an email... yet the pop-up's wording implies otherwise?

Confused. Any help/input? It happens frequently enough that I'm ready to go back to Windows 7 if I can't turn it off/find the root cause. It's insanely annoying.

dalchina · 25 Dec 2015

Hi, hmm, unusual.. annoying. (Never seen such a report or such a thing on my Win 10)
The window gives no clue.. so you could try installing
Window Detective
If you drag the red target icon from its gui to that window, you might find what it is.

That might not be enough to give you an answer, as you might have to go digging further to find what launched it, e.g. using Sysinternals Process Explorer.

Another approach might be to try associating an email program with all file types and protocols it can handle, thus satisfying some apparently missing association. Which would mean the program would be launched, and you might then get more information (e.g. some eml file being opened.....).

At a more basic level, a process of elimination.. start from a clean boot and try to achieve a state where you are NOT getting it.. if possible- then enable more startups until the problem recurs. You may need to consider scheduled tasks.

Some software as you know may generate email notifications.. certain maintenance tasks, system monitors, backup software... depending on the program and its settings.

Since yours is an upgrade from '7 it may be worth doing a basic check
chkdsk C: /F
sfc /Scannow
from an elevated command prompt.