A controversial topic presented by Mozilla (developers of Firefox) said that it was “disturbing” that Microsoft was being would change the default browser preference when Windows 10 is installed. I wrote a Twitter comment that stated Mozilla should “get over it”. Others said the same thing. I appreciate that Microsoft said they would leave this open for change based on user feedback. I like this stand by Microsoft and I stand by my own statement. Innovation and improvements based on user feedback and experiences should be a core goal of software companies. Microsoft has provided a new browser, Edge, and I think everyone should give it a test drive.
Helping people to perform basic Windows functions is something I need to know. It takes a bit of time and effort to negotiate the new Windows menus to find where to set the default applications so I set out to document and provide simple instructions on changing your Windows 10 default web browser back to something else, whatever it may be.
I like using Microsoft Edge, it’s simplicity, basic features, and speed. For example, I really like the Book icon on the toolbar that minimizes the contents of the current web page by removing extra assets (photos, videos, ads, etc.) and makes reading even easier and faster.
Setting Default Windows Browser
This instruction can be followed on all Windows 10 versions.
- Click on the Start button
- Click on Settings
- Scroll down the list and choose “Default apps”
- Scroll to find “Web browser”
- Click the currently selected web browser, by default it’s “Edge”
- Pick a browser application from the drop-down list
- Close (X) the windows to save your changes
When you open your favorite browser enough times, they can recognize this frequent action and ask if you want to set the default. If this happens, it’s a way to set it, but we hope this instruction will give you the step by step so it’s not hidden to you when it does it.
This completes the instruction we hope it was helpful.
Reset Default apps to original system preferences
If you want to reset the default applications to the system installed preferences, click the Reset button at the bottom of the “Default apps” window.