Setting Microsoft Outlook as the default application for email, contacts and calendars via Automator

While working on an Outlook 2016-related issue earlier this week, I found that there is not a straightforward way to set Microsoft Outlook 2016 as the default application for email, contacts and calendars. To redress this, I’ve developed an Automator application named Set Microsoft Outlook as default application for email calendars and contacts.app to handle this task.

The Set Microsoft Outlook as default application for email calendars and contacts application leverages duti, an open source tool used for managing application ownership of document types and URL schemes on Mac OS X, to set the newest version of Microsoft Outlook on the Mac as the default application for email, contacts and calendars.

The application includes an embedded copy of duti, so it is not necessary to have duti pre-installed on the Mac in order to use this tool. For more details, see below the jump.

Downloading the application

Set Microsoft Outlook as default application for email calendars and contacts.app can be downloaded from the link below:

https://github.com/rtrouton/set_microsoft_outlook_as_default_application/releases/latest

System requirements

Set Microsoft Outlook as default application for email calendars and contacts.app has been tested and verified to run on the following versions of OS X:

• 10.9.x
• 10.10.x
• 10.11.x

Set Microsoft Outlook as default application for email calendars and contacts.app has been tested and verified that it does not run on the following version of OS X:

• 10.8.x
• 10.7.x

Not tested:

• 10.6.x or earlier

Using the application

1. Download a copy of the application if needed.

2. Unzip the application

3. Double-click on Set Microsoft Outlook as default application for email calendars and contacts.app

4. When prompted, click the OK or Cancel button:

• Clicking the OK button:
• This will set the newest version of Outlook on the Mac as the default application for email, contacts and calendars
• Clicking the Cancel button:
• Exits the application without making changes to the existing email, contacts or calendar settings.

5. If the OK button is clicked, the application will make changes to the email, contacts or calendar settings on the Mac to set Outlook as the default application for email, contacts and calendars.

6. Once the settings changes have been made, the application will notify you that Outlook has been set as the default application for email, contacts and calendars.

7. Click the Done button to exit the application.

Components

All components, icons and scripts needed to build the Automator application are available from the following location on GitHub:

https://github.com/rtrouton/set_microsoft_outlook_as_default_application