Add Send Email Attachment to Windows Explorer context menu

I have added a "send attachment" entry to my right-click context menu when I perform that action on files. Adding attachments to emails was always sort of a burden for me because it was really uncomfortable to open the mail program, click on the attachment button and browse to the file on the hard drive of the computer.
While some programs support drag and drop, it means that I have to open the system's file explorer first, browse to the directory the file is in, to finally drag and drop it to the email that I'm writing.
A far better way is to right-click the file and select an entry that would automatically open the email program. All that was left to do from this point on was to fill out the email address and compose the mail.
I only found information to add the "send attachment" entry to the right-click menu for Thunderbird and Outlook.
Both require almost the same steps, only the command that is used will be different:
- Open the Windows Registry by pressing Windows + R, typing regedit and hitting enter.
- Navigate to the key Hkey_Classes_Root \ * \ shell.
- If the shell entry is not there create it by right-clicking on * and selecting New > Key from the menu and name it shell.
- Now create another key in the shell key and name it any way you like. This will be shown in the right-click menu so choose something like "send attachment" for instance.
- Create another key in the newly created key "send attachment" and name it "Command".
- Right-click on the Default entry in the right pane of Command.
- Select modify from the menu and add the following entry if you want to send attachments to Outlook:
"Path to Outlook.exe" /a "%1"
- If you want to send attachments with Thunderbird change the default value to:
"Path to Thunderbird.exe" -compose attachment="file://%1"
.
My command looks like the following to give you an impression "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\Thunderbird.exe" -compose attachment="file://%1"
Update: It has become easier to add attachments, as you can now use drag and drop in most email clients and even in online clients to attach files to emails. The command is still working though and if you happen to start in Windows Explorer, it may make the composing of emails with attachments more comfortable to you.

You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!