Send Files to Email via File Explorer Share Button in Windows 10

The much useful Mail Recipient command in the Send To menu helps you quickly attach files to your email, if you have a desktop email client (with Simple-MAPI support) installed in the system. Unfortunately, the Send To feature which uses Messaging API call, doesn’t support the built-in Mail app.

But there is still a way to directly send or attach files to a “New mail” or compose window in the Mail app automatically using File Explorer.

Share feature Supported by Modern Apps

Modern or UWP apps support the “Share” feature which app developers can implement in their apps, mentioning the supported data and file formats. The built-in Mail app in Windows 10 allows sending or sharing files via File Explorer by default and supports all files types.

Even if the app supports all file extensions to be attached to the new mail window, it’s important to note that the Outlook Mail service itself blocks certain high-risk file types from being sent, for safety reasons.

Attach Files to “New Mail” Message Using File Explorer

Open the folder containing files you want to attach and send via email. Select the files. From the File Explorer “Share” tab, click the Share button.

Note: The “Email” button on the Ribbon does the same as Send To > Mail Recipient (needs desktop mail client).

The modern share UI appears on the screen, showing the list of apps that support sharing. Select “Mail” app from the list.

This creates a new mail message, and automatically attaches the selected file(s) to it.

Add “Share” to the Right-click menu (Optional)

You can add most, if not all the ribbon commands to the context menu for quicker access. Here is a registry tweak that adds “Share” command to the right-click menu for files.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Windows.ModernShare]
"CommandStateSync"=""
"ExplorerCommandHandler"="{e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7}"
"Icon"="ntshrui.dll,-123"
"ImpliedSelectionModel"=dword:00000000

Copy the above lines to Notepad, and save the file as share-command.reg. Double-click the .reg file to apply the settings to the registry. Now, you can right-click on a file and access the Share command.

And the modern Share UI appears. Note that in earlier versions of Windows 10, a Share pane appeared on the right. The UI is now redesigned and it appears on the center of the screen, looking like the one below:

See also

Sharing to your target app – Windows app developer blog

Error “There is no email program associated to perform the requested action” When Sending File To Mail