Question : Force Default E-mail Client ??

We are upgrading our mail clients to Outlook in a few weeks, but for now we use Lotus Notes.   The Outlook client has been silently installed on all the machines in the building.  Though when some users  click on a online link (contact us, for more info etc) they are prompted to configure Outlook for the first time.

Does anyone know of a way were we can force Windows to set Lotus Notes as the default e-mail client and calendar and not change it? Using a registry key perhaps?  

But the gotcha is in a few weeks  we will need to awaken outlook then set permanently set Outlook as the default e-mail client.

Anyway to do this?

Answer : Force Default E-mail Client ??

do you use active directory? if so, here are some ways..

create a GPO that will force the computers to have the default email to be Lotus Notes
here are the basics:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555566
here is how:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/556081
and the more detailed one:
http://configuration-guide.com/microsoft-outlook-default-mail-client-group-policy/

you may need to change it to "Lotus Notes" first, and if you need to revert it to outlook just do the way it said on the guide above

hope this helps!