How to replace Border as the default browser in Windows x — and why yous shouldn't

Here's how to make Chrome, Firefox, or another browser the primary one in Windows x. (Simply are y'all sure you want to?)

Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

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Microsoft

Microsoft has been struggling to get people to use its Border browser for years. Even though the company made Edge the default browser in Windows x, users left in droves, virtually of them flocking to Google Chrome — and with good reason. The original version of Edge was underpowered, had difficult-to-use features, and offered very few extensions compared to Chrome and Firefox.

Merely in January 2020, Microsoft launched a new version of Edge that's based on the same technologies that drive Chrome. The new Edge is a much better browser, and in that location are compelling reasons to use information technology. But you might still prefer to utilise Chrome, Firefox, or one of the many other browsers out there.

Note that even if you lot've previously prepare another browser to exist your default, it might have been inverse since then. When there's a major Windows x upgrade, the upgrade recommends switching to Edge, and you might have inadvertently made the switch.

Any the reason, if Border is your default Windows 10 browser, it's easy to switch to the browser of your selection. As I'll show yous, it only takes a few minutes.

The instructions in this article presume that you've installed the latest version of Windows 10 — version 20H2, a.grand.a. the October 2020 Update. If y'all haven't installed information technology, the screens you see may vary somewhat from what you see here.

Why you might want to stick with Edge

By now, the new Edge has most probable been automatically delivered to most Windows 10 Home and Pro users via Windows Update. Enterprise users may or may not have it yet, depending on their IT departments' rollout plans. If you've been using the old Border as your default browser, the new one will exist your default every bit well. If yous've set some other browser as your default, the new Edge won't automatically override your preference — but like all browsers, it will ask if you lot want to make information technology the default.

It's probably worth at least trying out the new Edge. The browser offers a clean design with intuitive features. The biggest drawback to the old Edge was its paltry option of browser extensions, simply because the new Edge uses the aforementioned rendering engine as Chrome, it can run Chrome extensions, which number in the thousands. And unlike Chrome, Edge offers tracking prevention, which blocks ad providers from tracking you from website to website.

In my tests, Edge also feels faster than Chrome and uses on average xiv% less RAM. And information technology has some interesting features worth trying, such as the ability to launch a website as if it's an app.

All that said, you might not exist interested in trying out the new Edge, or you might try it and decide you still prefer Chrome, Firefox, or another browser. You may, for example, similar Firefox's ability to alert you when a website covertly uses your estimator's processor to mine cryptocurrency in the background, without your knowledge. Or you lot might like the way Chrome's Omnibox (the place you type URLs and searches) can do things similar perform math functions, convert currencies, or answer questions such as naming the capitals of U.Due south. states without having to search the internet.

If yous want to use another browser as your default, here's what to do.

How to designate another browser equally your default

The start thing you need to exercise to switch to another browser as your default is to install the other browser on your system. After that'southward done, click the Windows 10 Start button and click the Settings icon that appears on the left-hand side of the screen. (Information technology looks like a little gear.) You lot tin alternatively blazon settings into the search box and click the Settings result that appears at the height of the screen.

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To change your default browser in Windows 10, start in the Settings app.

In the Settings app, select Apps > Default apps. The "Default apps" screen appears. It shows the default apps for e-mail, maps, playing music and videos, viewing photos, and more. To modify the default browser, you'll take to roll down toward the lesser of your screen.

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Navigate to the "Default apps" screen and coil down.

Almost the bottom of the screen, y'all'll see Microsoft Edge under the "Web browser" list. Click the Microsoft Edge icon and you lot'll see a pop-up with a list of your installed browsers.

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Select a dissimilar browser to be your default.

(Side note: The pop-upwardly also has a "Await for an app in the Microsoft Store" option, but if you click it, you won't discover Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or any other browser you've likely e'er heard of. Clicking it launches a search of the Windows App Store for the term "http," which turns up a motley drove of apps, from file downloaders to an app that dims your Windows groundwork to make it easier to view videos. There are also some little-known browsers listed, such as Super-Fast Browser and BlueSky Browser. Try them out if you like, simply keep in listen that they're Windows Store apps, and as a general dominion, Windows Store apps are underpowered compared to desktop apps like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.)

Click the browser that you'd similar to be your default browser. No demand to restart; your work is done.

This story was originally launched in September 2017 and most recently updated in March 2021.

Preston Gralla is a contributing editor for Computerworld and the author of more than 45 books, including Windows eight Hacks (O'Reilly, 2012) and How the Internet Works (Que, 2006).

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