Microsoft has officially rolled out Windows 11, and it had added a lot of new features. This is accompanied by a host of changes to how we get things done on the OS. One of the changes (which happens to be a frustrating one) is how much work is now required to make any browser other than Microsoft Edge your default browser.
This means that if you are not a huge fan of Microsoft’s Edge browser and would rather have another browser as your default, you should get ready to dig through menus to change a couple of settings that can be quite tricky because whereas all you needed to change your default browser on Windows was simply swapping out Edge for whichever browser you wanted, the new Windows 11 update requires you to change the default application for each file type.
In this guide, we will show you the entire process involved in configuring Windows 11 so you no longer have to use Microsoft Edge as your default browser for every web-related link and app that you click.
How to Change Your Default Web Browser in Windows 11
First off, go to the Windows 11 Settings menu. Once in the Settings menu, head over to the “default apps” section. You can do this by selecting the Apps section in the Settings menu and then clicking “Default apps.” You can even do this faster by hitting the Start key to open up the Start menu, typing in “default apps,” and then selecting the link to the Default apps when the list of results appears.
Once you get to the default apps screen, scroll down the list of apps until you get to the app you would like to set as your default browser. Once you find it, click it. The browser we will be using in this guide is the Google Chrome browser. You can, however, use any browser you want as your default browser be it Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.
Now, scroll down till you get to the HTTPS section. Select it to change the default app from Microsoft Edge to any browser you would like to use as your default. Now, you will notice that once you select an app in the Default apps menu, a list of relevant file types will be displayed on the screen. All these file types will have an app listed as the default one to open it.
The first time you click an app in the Default apps menu, all the web-related file types should have Microsft Edge set as the default. If you would like to change this, simply scroll down the screen till you get to the HTTPS section and then select the icon right under it( which should be Microsoft Edge) to select a new app.
Now, you may be presented with a pop-up window asking you to check out Microsoft Edge before you stop using it. If you are already sure about switching your default browser, you can select the “Switch anyway” option and ignore the warning. Now, you can select the browser you would like to have as your default, which should change both HTTPS and HTTP defaults to your preferred web browser. You can see an arrow pointing at Chrome in the “How do you want to open this” pane from the image below.
Now, you can repeat this process for other file types such as .htm, .HTML, and any other web-related file type you have saved on your PC. Now, this part is the strenuous part as you have to repeat this process for every file type you would like your preferred default browser to open, unlike in Windows 10, where this was done automatically with one setting.
Now, before you proceed, you should make sure that both HTTP and HTTPS did, in fact, change from the Microsoft Edge browser to whichever browser you prefer to use as your default. If the default app for opening HTTP links did not automatically change when you changed the HTTPS setting, you will have to do it manually as well.
Now, we also advise that you change the default app for opening opening .HTM, .HTML, .PDF, .SHTML, and .XHTML. You can ignore the last two if you want, as they aren’t used very often anymore, and as such, it is very unlikely that you come across a web file with either of those extensions. If you change the setting, however, you are guaranteed to have your preferred browser open up in the event that you ever click it.
And that is pretty much it! With these few and easy steps, you can also change the default apps for other file types on your Windows 11. This could be videos, music, or even photo files.
