computer configuration question thing (help me, neighbors!)

I use cruzio's webmail (and to a much lesser degree, a gmail account), not the Windows email client. It looks like xp pro will only let me configure a client resident on the computer's own drives as the default mail program. Since I do not wish to have windows or opera muck with my email, I haven't configured either of them and I don't intend to (I don't want my email archives on my computer at all. My webmail also keeps copies of sent mail).

This is my problem. Whenever I need to use somebody's mailto: link I get a popup Outlook Express mail form. It's of course nonfunctional. So to actually send that mail I have to copy the address and paste it into a webmail form. But if I could set the webmail as the default -- at least when I have it open in a browser window -- I could save that annoyance. Can I? How can I? I really don't want to use Outlook Express, or Opera, or Firefox, or Eudora,or . . . etc. I like how my webmail works. If it's not possible to set webmail as the default, I'd rather continue kludging as I do now than to install a client. But can I set my webmail as a default mail program -- seeing that it isn't resident on the computer?

more stupid computer tricks

When my computer did its last self-wipe and I was unable to reinstall my Xp pro, I took it to my usually quite competent and attentive usual computer repair place.

They found no operating system and nothing else anywhere on the main drive. But they also found nothing wrong with the computer. So they said they could reinstall Windows for me. I said I would like that as I had tried several times without success. I also said "My backup disk is in the computer."

They installed some other copy of Windows -- Windows Home, no less. How did I find this out? trying to configure my Windows to my taste (adding other language support).

Oh, and when I went to the Microsoft webpage for support in this (i.e., to figure out how to reinstall my very own windows Xp pro with the least possible risk), I discovered that my product key is not valid. This is the product key that they sold to me as "genuine advantage" after a long period of harrassment, though my windows was already genuine (and expensive).

So I think I'm taking the computer back to the shop, but on another day. They can damned well do what they were supposed to do the first time.

I also think I'm getting rid of this computer as soon as I can get Frank's old computer configured and stuff. But today I'm writing, okay?

We've been trying to de-Collier Brothers our house, starting with the mess Frank left behind, and using the momentum to almost-simultaneously fix our own considerable mess.