Macmail opens unexpectedly

Though I do not have a Macmail account, it opens at seemingly random times on my iMac. I'm running Snow Leopard. How to fix?

How do you not have an email account?

Any chance this happens when clicking certain kinds of links in websites by chance?

I believe I noticed that once or twice, but not sure it's always the case.

Mail (what you call Macmail) is the default e-mail client on the Mac unless you specify something else.

Are you using something else? Not sure why you're being so reticent with important details that would help us help you ...

Sorry for the taciturnity, but I'm not seeing a pattern. My default email is Gmail and I'm using OS 10.6.8. I just tried clicking a bunch of links in the Chrome browser history, plus several "contact us" links in public and private sector websites (which open Gmail as I'd expect), but was unable to replicate the unexpected opening of Mail. The problem has been going on for a few weeks, but I've not seen it today, so maybe there was a self-healing with the last restart of the computer. Thanks for your patience.

I spoke too soon about self-healing. My wife and I have separate accounts on our iMac, and today upon switching from her account to mine, Chrome opened and the Mail icon started bouncing again. I shut the computer down last night using the start button because of a system hangup (could not even get to Force Quit); not sure if that had anything to do with it. Also I checked the login items in Preferences and Mail was not there. Running Snow Leopard. Thanks.

Sounds like your wife's account has Chrome set up correctly as the default email client, whereas your account doesn't.

There's a free system preference panel called "RC Default Apps" that can be installed to give you more control over things like this. Also, when these apps open by themselves on login, let them do so, then check the status on them by clicking-and-holding on the icon in the dock. Is "open at login" checked? If it is, select it again to UN check it.

Thanks. I installed RC Default Apps but am not sure what to do. I notice that the Apple apps like Mail and Keynote have some functions that cannot be unchecked, e.g. pps cannot be unchecked under Keynote, and Keynote still opens .pps files though I checked it under Powerpoint.

At any rate, Mail still opens unexpectedly. Holding on the icon in the dock gives a little menu with Options/Open at Login but I don't see a place to uncheck anything. What am I missing? I'm running OS 10.6.8.