[MaleBocks]

Becky is an outstanding e-mail client. I have been using it as a registered user for nearly a decade. But it's interface is getting kind of long in the tooth. That's ok with me because I prefer software that works rather than software that's pretty and crashes. But with Becky you can have both, with a little tweaking

CAUTION!!! THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR EXPERIENCED WINDOWS USERS. IF YOU HAVE NEVER EDITED A REGISTRY FILE OR DON'T UNDERSTAND THE BASICS OF FILE MANAGEMENT, YOU SHOULD NOT TRY THIS.

1. Install and configure Becky as you like. Since Becky's interface is rather old, I add a custom email icon as well as the b2icon_iCandy dll file for the Becky toolbar. Or you can get Tietew's Powerful Becky Customizer plugin here.

2. To the Becky directory, I then add Garage rocker's Becky .chm file Help File and delete Becky's old .hlp file, which won't even open in modern versions of Windows. I also relocate the Becky data directory to another folder outside the Becky directory to make data backups smaller.
// also here in forum ► http://www.lognrock....ecky-help-file/ //

3. So when you finish you should have a Becky directory with these 14 files. My list includes a 15th custom mail.ico program icon file.

B2.chm
B2.cnt
B2.exe
B2.exe.manifest
B2.kwd
B2MAPI.dll
B2Setup.exe
B2Setup.INF
License.txt
Mailbox.ico
Readme.txt
SSCE4132.DLL
SSCEAM1.CLX
SSCEBR1.CLX

//14 with the icon//

4. Next open the B2Setup.INF file with a text editor. Locate the [Files] section and add any new files (i.e. *.ico) you have put in the Becky directory and delete the names of any removed files (i.e. *.hlp) so that Becky will correctly uninstall itself should you choose to uninstall it.

5. Compress the Becky directory to the archive format of your choice, i.e. zip, rar, 7z.

6. Make a backup of your registry, then open your registry editor and export the following section and all sub-entries, including the \Software\RimArts\B2\License key, to a registry file on your desktop:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RimArts

7. Open the registry file with a text editor and add this code to the bottom of that registry file to register Becky as the default email client, set any custom Becky uninstall icon and, optionally, remove other Microsoft programs as default mailto clients:

; ALL REFERENCES TO "C:\\PROGRAM FILES\\Becky\\" MUST BE MODIFIED TO THE ACTUAL PATH OF YOUR BECKY INSTALLATION
; Mailto protocol settings
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2]
@="Becky! Ver.2"
"DLLPath"="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\B2MAPI.dll"
"VersionString"="2.57.01 [en]"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Capabilities]
"ApplicationDescription"="Internet mail client."
"ApplicationName"="Becky! Ver.2"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Capabilities\Startmenu]
"Mail"="Becky! Ver.2"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Capabilities\UrlAssociations]
"mailto"="BeckyMail.Url.mailto"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Protocols]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Protocols\mailto]
@="URL:MailTo Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Protocols\mailto\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\Mailbox.ico,0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Protocols\mailto\shell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Protocols\mailto\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\Protocols\mailto\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\B2.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\shell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Becky! Ver.2\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\B2.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BeckyMail.Url.Mailto]
@="URL:MailTo Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BeckyMail.Url.Mailto\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\Mailbox.ico,0"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BeckyMail.Url.Mailto\shell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BeckyMail.Url.Mailto\shell\open]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BeckyMail.Url.Mailto\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\B2.exe\ "%1\""

;**********************************************************************
; This entry nukes Hotmail and Windows Mail and Outlook as mailto program choices
; This entry is optional but sometimes Becky won't register as the default email client after Outlook is installed unless you nuke these entries.
; To activate them you must remove the semicolon before each entry
;**********************************************************************
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Hotmail]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Windows Mail]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft Outlook.Url.Mailto]

; Set Becky uninstall icon please note you must alter the icon and uninstall strings to the directory paths of these files (usually the Becky directory)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\B2]
"DisplayName"="Becky! Ver.2"
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\Mailbox.ico"
"Publisher"="RimArts"
"UninstallString"="C:\\XXXX\\Becky\\B2Setup.exe u"

8. Save the edited registry file as Becky.reg

9. You're done. To install Becky in the future:
a. Unzip the Becky file archive to the location of your choice.
b. Execute the new registry file by typing the following in the "run" dialog box: REGEDIT.EXE /s C:\XXX\Becky.reg (Where XXX represents the path to the registry file)
c. Register the b2mapi.dll file by typing the following in the "run" dialog box: regsvr32.exe /s C:\XXX\B2MAPI.dll (Where XXX represents the path to the .dll file).

10. You can automate all of this by making a self extracting zip file and running these commands automatically, but that is beyond the scope of this post.

[MaleBocks]

Garage Rocker is also known as David Kirk and his website for the chm file is here: http://davidskirk.org/becky/. Also, you must comment out the registry entries below the asterick (I can't edit my original post) if you don't want to use them. Finally, in my previous post, the file "mail.au3" is unneeded too. So you should have 13 files if you don't include a custom icon file.

This post has been edited by Brummelchen: 21 September 2011 - 09:30 PM

[Brummelchen]

Remember: FOR EXPERIENCED WINDOWS USERS only


as long i use becky! now i have all data within the program folder.
for backup i export the registry key, put it into that folder and archive all together.

i ever reinstalled becky! on the same drive letter (other partition) in same path.

settings in registry are only settings for becky! itself,
settings for mail accounts are stored in the data folder.

becky! settings are done in a couple of minutes, the default are pretty nice and secure at least.
data folder can be changed at any time to any place - so it can point to any existing
folder even a new one was created after a setup from scratch.
so backing up the data folder is a important task and it should be done from time to
time - use any backup software you like, lots of freeware or free full versions (give-aways).

Outlook, Hotmail settings - mozilla thunderbird has a negativ influence too - it was not possible
for me to set becky! as default while using thunderbird - no clue. and i never had issues with
those pre-set windows keys. although i deleted hotmail and windows mail which are online mail pages.

mail.au3 - open source for Autoit? possible to have an open look at it?
for my purposes autoit is sometimes too big - i write in nsis.

Ps i made some corrections marked in red.

Cheers

[MaleBocks]

Brummelchen, on 21 September 2011 - 05:11 PM, said:

# no full quotes please - cite only text you refer to, thanx

1. Whenever you install an email client subsequent to Becky, it will over write Becky so you have to apply the above registry file again to again make Becky the default client. I'm not sure how Thunderbird works, but Outlook (and perhaps Thunderbird) is very aggressive and has to be deleted as an alternative mail program in either the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients section or, in Outlook's case, at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft Outlook.Url.Mailto, in order for Becky to regain default status.

2. I'm sorry I was rather unclear about the data folder. So long as you preserve it, where ever it is located, your registry key and email data is preserved. I just put it in my regular backup drive so I don't have to worry about it, when I reformat my hard drive. But if you keep it in the default location of C:\Windows\ProgramFiles\Becky, you run the risk of Windows crashing and taking your Becky data with it if you can't rescue the Windows partition Becky is also located on.

3. The mail.au3 file is just a custom launcher file that I created to launch Becky and enter the password when cursor is in a certain location on my desktop.

Hope that helps.

[Brummelchen]

idd - sad - becky! itself has no setting for a "default mailer". but user can set it in the preferences within internet explorer - thats possible. i never used outlook (which is available with MS Office Suite only or as a single part of it). i never used Outlook Express^^

second is similar to mine except the folder(s). its ok.