Email and FreeCommander

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Foxfan20
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Joined: 14.07.2020, 09:54

Email and FreeCommander

#1 Post by Foxfan20 » 26.11.2022, 11:42

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, release 22H2, FreeCommander 64-bit, release 878

First, this isn't a problem or serious bug, but a question to which there may be an answer that I haven't found; perhaps a setting in FreeCommander.

From time to time, I need to send files I'm working on, using my email client Thunderbird. These are mainly PDFs, but can be other files such as documents (Word, Libre), spreadsheets (Excel, Libre).

When using FreeCommander, I navigate to the file, double-click it, and it will open in its default application (Foxit Reader, Word etc.). I can then work on it, save it, and with the file still open in the application, select the file sharing dropdown from the application menu (for example, in Foxit,"Share>Email>Email Current Tab" and similar in MS Office applications). This should result in my already-running Thunderbird client opening a new mail composition window for me to input recipient etc., and with the file as an attachment. However, when I go through this routine,and after a brief interval, I get an error message ("Word couldn't send mail because of MAPI failure:Unspecified error", or an internal Foxit 000002 error), and my Thunderbird taskbar icon briefly flashes and changes colour, whilst the error message(s) I describe appear in the Word, Foxit etc. window.

This is the series of events when I am using FreeCommander, and I almost never use Windows File Explorer, and then only when it is set as the default for an application such as OneDrive and appears automatically.

However, if I go through the exact same sequence of file opening, app running and file sharing via email as I describe in Para. 3 above, using File Explorer, the sharing operation works perfectly. A new email composition window opens in Thunderbird, with my shared file as an attachment, and I can then email it to the recipient.

I don't think this is a Thunderbird problem, and I have been through all obvious settings in the applications to see if there is anything that may affect them, but this is unlikely if they will work with File Explorer but error with FreeCommander. Perhaps there is a setting in FreeCommander that I've missed or set wrongly, or something in the Registry that may need altering or adding.

I have meantime added Thunderbird as a "Sent to" in the right-click file context menu that appears in FreeCommander, and this works perfectly, to email the selected file(s) as attachments, so I'm not unable to email out of FreeCommander. It would however be useful to be able to share files as I have described from FreeCommander and the application options, and I am curious as to why these work as required in the File Explorer scenario but not in FreeCommander; with the latter being my main and sole "navigator" on the machine.

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Dreamer
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Re: Email and FreeCommander

#2 Post by Dreamer » 26.11.2022, 15:41

Perhaps the problem is, that you're using 64-bit FC version and 32-bit Thunderbird version, I'm not sure, but you can try the same with 32-bit FC version.

Foxfan20
Posts: 22
Joined: 14.07.2020, 09:54

Re: Email and FreeCommander

#3 Post by Foxfan20 » 27.11.2022, 10:31

Dreamer wrote: 26.11.2022, 15:41 Perhaps the problem is, that you're using 64-bit FC version and 32-bit Thunderbird version, I'm not sure, but you can try the same with 32-bit FC version.
Thanks for your reply. They are both 64-bit versions, with Thunderbird being 102.5.0 (64-bit).

I doubt it will tell us anything useful, but I could try closing my 64-bit FC and running the FC 32-bit Donor Portable, and see what happens then.

Foxfan20
Posts: 22
Joined: 14.07.2020, 09:54

Re: Email and FreeCommander

#4 Post by Foxfan20 » 27.11.2022, 11:29

I didn't want to affect my installed FC 64-bit version, which is set up exactly as I want it, so I have downloaded both the 32-bit and 64-bit Portable versions of FC, and extracted them to a USB flash drive.

I have used both versions off the flash drive to open and share PDFs via Foxit and docx Word files. When I select the "Share" option in both Word and Foxit, the files concerned immediately appear as attachments in a Thunderbird email composition window. In other words, both versions of FC Portable work fine.

Next, I set up a couple of folders for 32 and 64 bit versions on my system SSD C drive, and again extracted the portables to them. Running through the same PDF and Word file opening and sharing routine, using the portables on the SSD, the files were immediately sent to Thunderbird in 32 and 64 versions.

If the files are opened directly from within the running applications (Word, Foxit etc.), rather than being selected and opened from Explorer or FreeCommander, then there are no problems in sharing via Thunderbird.

Since the methods or protocols used by Foxit and Word to share files must be the same, however the applications are started/invoked (in this case by the file type defaults), there seems to be a difference between an installed FC 64-bit in C:Program Files and the various settings there, and presumably in the Registry, and the "bare" FC portable versions.

As I said in my first post here, this isn't a big problem, but opening, and using files from FC, and sharing from their native applications is something I do quite often, and it would be useful if the installed FC were to perform as perfectly as the portables do.

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