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I frequently get this pop-up message for no apparent reason:

Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Outlook and set it as the default mail client.

I don't have Outlook set up. I use Thunderbird as my default, and I want to keep it.

What's bothering me is that I don't know what is trying to send an email from my computer. Some app that runs in background? A virus?

Is there a way to identify the source?

EDIT: I changed the question because respondents were focusing on how to let the message be sent. I don't want that. At least, not until I know what it is and what is trying to send it!

UPDATE: The Task Manager shows COM Surrogate associated with Microsoft Office Outlook. From what I've read, this is either a normal process behaving badly, or a virus pretending to be the normal process, and behaving badly by design.

I ran my Avast anti-virus, but it still kept happening. I then Trend Micro Housecall, but it didn't catch any viruses.

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  • Hi, Have you tried a full uninstall and reinstall of Office already? Normally a registry file issue with this error so you may need to uninstall clean registry and preferences then reinstall.
    – Gloria Gu
    Commented Oct 20, 2020 at 6:35
  • I have not, and since it seems like a lot of trouble I'd first like to ask: Are you sure that this would be relevant, considering that I've never used Outlook on this computer? And will this help me determine what process is trying to send an e-mail?
    – Shawn V. Wilson
    Commented Oct 20, 2020 at 19:22
  • Do a full deep scan with an antivirus. Use couple different ones.
    – Zoran Jankov
    Commented Oct 22, 2020 at 4:19
  • Sadly this may be fixed the show painful way... If you check task manager and its unclear, then disable as much as you can on start up. If that works, bring things in one at a time. Maybe process monitor could help. Check event viewer in case you get lucky
    – Dave
    Commented Oct 22, 2020 at 5:10

1 Answer 1

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According to this forum posting at Microsoft:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files-winpc/com-surrogate-keeps-trying-to-email/0a273525-7382-4233-87db-db242982454b

...the likely culprit is CortanaMapiHelper. One of the posters discovered that a few apps and protocols where unassigned, so he assigned them to Outlook and the trouble went away.

On my computer, one of those same protocols was also unassigned: WEBCAL URL:Add Internet Calendar. I don't have Outlook installed, so I assigned it to Edge and will see what happens.

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