Setting a default browser could get easier in future Windows 11 versions

But it probably won't stop the OS from reminding you that Edge exists.

See full article...

 

[aerogems]

This is definitely going to be a case where I'm not giving Microsoft any credit for fixing something they broke of their own accord. Windows 10's system, while far from perfect, was still worlds better than the throwback to older versions of Windows that found its way into Win 11.

 

[Deleted member 80270]

Pffft, they broke it to make it harder.

Sorry, but this isn't going to end better for us. (edit:NinjaD)

 

[mir-teiwaz]

I don't get it, "Open With" is actually one of the few right click menu items that MS didn't hide behind a second click on Win 11 (probably the most irritating UI "improvement" IMHO). It works just like it did on Win 10, there is an option to "always use this application to open this file type" which sets the default app.

 

[agpob]

"less of a mess" for who? Them or the user?

 

[Static and Noise]

This is definitely going to be a case where I'm not giving Microsoft any credit for fixing something they broke of their own accord. Windows 10's system, while far from perfect, was still worlds better than the throwback to older versions of Windows that found its way into Win 11.

How is Windows 11's system a throwback to pre-Windows 10 with regards to setting default apps? If anything, it's an iteration of Windows 10. Because, remember, Windows 10 is what made it a LOT more complicated to set new default apps.

A throwback to pre-Windows 10 would be the old "Would you like to set [App] as your new dauflt for [types of files]?" dialog, where you either clicked yes or no. A far cry from the convoluted mess that was both Windows 10 and 11. In Windows 10, it was pretty much random what it classified as a certain type of files, like images, media et cetera. To make something like IrfanView defrault for all image types, or VLC for all video, you'd have to go through all the relevant extensions, to make sure Windows 10 actually did what it claimed to do.

Like, Windows 10 didn't even use classify .wmv as a type of video format...

 

[ahmerali]

Great, now make it so that when I associate PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, your updates don't undo that and associate them back with Edge.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

 

[ryanja]

I honestly don't get what's hard about it.

 

[Tridus]

Next will they make it so a random Windows Update won't throw a Bing Chat searchbar on my desktop, ask if I want to remove it, then make me reboot before that setting actually works?

Oh wait, it was them who did that. So probably not.

Microsoft are the ones almost entirely responsible for this problem in the first place, and they're still the most guilty party when it comes to actively disrespecting user choices by constantly either resetting defaults back to Edge or nagging you about it.

 

[deltaproximus]

I don't get it, "Open With" is actually one of the few right click menu items that MS didn't hide behind a second click on Win 11 (probably the most irritating UI "improvement" IMHO). It works just like it did on Win 10, there is an option to "always use this application to open this file type" which sets the default app.

You can fix the right click menu issue by entering

reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

in the windows terminal and then restarting explorer, at least.

 

[Fatesrider]

There's no word on whether the company will stop prompting you to switch to Edge once you've installed a different default browser or whether it will stop prompting you to switch back to Bing once you've set a new default search engine in Edge.

I loathe Edge so much, I told Windows to block it in the firewall. Even when it's hard coded to bring up (for a help item, as an example) it can't get through. I'd rather read the URL and take Firefox there (if it will go there) than fuck with Edge.

Default apps are a hot mess in Windows 10, but they're a known hot mess. Microsoft has such a spotty reputation for "fixing" things like that, I shudder to contemplate how bad it will be after they "fix" it. I'm so used to the "Open with..." option being right click there that if IT went away, I'd be lost - and very angry.

 

[UltraModernGuy]

How about we never get the, "are you sure you don't want to use Edge?" extra prompts when switching default browsers and pdf viewers. Just do it.
I've even had it ask, "Are you sure you don't want to use Mail" when switching to Outlook as the default mail client. FO MS

 

[Wallachia]

Literally just set it back to Windows 7 behavior.

Creating default file associations in Windows 10 was such a mess -- first it worked just like 10, then it didnt work at all, then you needed to cart around some XML file through a Group Policy -- then it just worked again, rinse and repeat -- with each Windows feature update

We were wasting so much time we just told all 3,000 of our users "do it yourself, good luck"

 

[YoloYoda]

Great, now make it so that when I associate PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, your updates don't undo that and associate them back with Edge.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Jokes on you, Adobe merged Acrobat into Edge

 

[aerogems]

How is Windows 11's system a throwback to pre-Windows 10 with regards to setting default apps? If anything, it's an iteration of Windows 10. Because, remember, Windows 10 is what made it a LOT more complicated to set new default apps.

I'm talking about like in the XP days, before the EU forced MS to come up with that simple dialog box to select browsers, which they then expanded to other things as well. Back when every single extension had to have its own manually set association.

 

[iseptimus]

Rip Edge out of the core of the Windows start menu (and anywhere else) then we'll talk MS. If it wasn't for gaming (and it is getting better) I would switch to Linux in a heartbeat. If only MacOS had a decent gaming platform also, I would be gone.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

I don't get it, "Open With" is actually one of the few right click menu items that MS didn't hide behind a second click on Win 11 (probably the most irritating UI "improvement" IMHO). It works just like it did on Win 10, there is an option to "always use this application to open this file type" which sets the default app.

Would have been even better if Windows allow customizing the right-click contextual window to move around choices like "Open with" or such. Glad that 11 now has Compress to... instead of Share to...then compress to folder...etc.

 

[sobear]

their own nag nag nag for edge is so damned annoying

 

[alansh42]

Apps can move back into the main context menu, but they have to be updated to do it.

The old context menu loads 3rd party DLLs into the Explorer process every time you pop it up. This has caused a lot of Explorer hangs and crashes which get blamed on Microsoft.

Microsoft has a blog entry that describes the rationale for the changes.

The new menu has apps register their context menu entries (without directly writing to the local machine registry) and groups them by app. The 3rd party code only runs when you select an item and can run out of process.

The awkward way for reassigning file associations and pinning apps is to prevent apps from hijacking these features.

 

[dennis.kext]

When I first started doing mixed Windows support last year I was so shocked at the state of default app selection in Windows. As an ancient Mac IT guy I was like "we fixed this in System 7."
I'm glad this will be updated, it should make creating images for cloning faster.

 

[skippy10110]

I'm a developer and like to script my settings. I wish "user choice" would include a way to script what file extensions get associated with what programs. I have something that works now, but they keep making this more complicated and breaking things in the name of user choice... thus taking away my choice.

Setting up 50+ file extension defaults by hand on every fresh install is a... no from me.

 

[Deranged]

”But the company says it will begin doing more to block "unrequested modifications to a user's choices...”

ah, so does that mean that they will also stop opening Edge for any internal links like help pages and such too then and actually respect the default browser settting for ALL web related content?

 

[caution live frogs]

Jokes on you, Adobe merged Acrobat into Edge

OH THANK GOD

No, REALLY. As an administrator who develops and deploys Adobe forms for our program, you have NO FLIPPING IDEA how many times I have had to talk people through the incredibly difficult task of opening a PDF in Acrobat.

"No, you opened it in Edge. No, your PDF viewer is not outdated, that's what you see when a form like that is opened in Edge. No, there is nothing wrong with the form, you just need to open it in Adobe. Nope, you downloaded the form, but you double-clicked it and it opened up in Edge again. You can't fill the form out and sign it in Edge, you need to do it in Adobe."

It absolutely sucks and some people just do not understand how they can possibly have two programs that can open a PDF. The old Adobe plug-in for IE trained a generation of office drones that opening it in browser meant it was open in Adobe, and talking them through the differences is like talking your grandmother through a bare-metal Linux install over the phone.

(Filling out forms in any viewer other than Acrobat consistently breaks form field automation, strips out any scripting, flattens the form making entries impossible to batch-export, and so on. I really and truly hate how bad people are at forms.)

 

[aerogems]

OH THANK GOD

No, REALLY. As an administrator who develops and deploys Adobe forms for our program, you have NO FLIPPING IDEA how many times I have had to talk people through the incredibly difficult task of opening a PDF in Acrobat.

"No, you opened it in Edge. No, your PDF viewer is not outdated, that's what you see when a form like that is opened in Edge. No, there is nothing wrong with the form, you just need to open it in Adobe. Nope, you downloaded the form, but you double-clicked it and it opened up in Edge again. You can't fill the form out and sign it in Edge, you need to do it in Adobe."

I think anyone who has spent any non-trivial amount of time in a tech support role is busting out laughing right now, thinking about many similar scenarios from their own experience.

 

[mjeffer]

How about we never get the, "are you sure you don't want to use Edge?" extra prompts when switching default browsers and pdf viewers. Just do it.
I've even had it ask, "Are you sure you don't want to use Mail" when switching to Outlook as the default mail client. FO MS

The prompt, when switching, doesn't bother me that much. It's the million other times they repeatedly ask me to switch after I've said no countless times before.

 

[ahmerali]

OH THANK GOD

No, REALLY. As an administrator who develops and deploys Adobe forms for our program, you have NO FLIPPING IDEA how many times I have had to talk people through the incredibly difficult task of opening a PDF in Acrobat.

"No, you opened it in Edge. No, your PDF viewer is not outdated, that's what you see when a form like that is opened in Edge. No, there is nothing wrong with the form, you just need to open it in Adobe. Nope, you downloaded the form, but you double-clicked it and it opened up in Edge again. You can't fill the form out and sign it in Edge, you need to do it in Adobe."

It absolutely sucks and some people just do not understand how they can possibly have two programs that can open a PDF. The old Adobe plug-in for IE trained a generation of office drones that opening it in browser meant it was open in Adobe, and talking them through the differences is like talking your grandmother through a bare-metal Linux install over the phone.

(Filling out forms in any viewer other than Acrobat consistently breaks form field automation, strips out any scripting, flattens the form making entries impossible to batch-export, and so on. I really and truly hate how bad people are at forms.)

Well, if it avoids that problem for the end-user, then that's definitely a plus. Good on....someone I guess.

 

[grommit!]

Chrome and Firefox, for example, pin themselves to your taskbar upon installation automatically without asking. Firefox can set itself as your default browser within the app itself, skipping Settings entirely

Using these new features isn't mandatory, and app developers who are handling things differently won't need to change their apps immediately. But the company says it will begin doing more to block "unrequested modifications to a user's choices... later this year after application developers have had time to incorporate these new best practices."

One suspects these two are not unrelated.

 

[afidel]

Great, now make it so that when I associate PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, your updates don't undo that and associate them back with Edge.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Especially preview pane, took months to figure out how to get the preview pane back to using the correct Adobe file handler instead of a nag screen to make Edge the default browser!

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Microsoft, you're the ones who created this problem in the first place! Back in Windows 7, file associations weren't randomly reverting to MS's preferred defaults. That's something they introduced in Windows 10. Just... stop trying to force your stuff on us. I don't even see why you care if we use your browser. We paid for your OS already and the browser's free so what difference does it make to you?

 

[alansh42]

One suspects these two are not unrelated.

The default MIME type handlers are in the registry, but there's an undocumented registry key where a hash of the existing value is stored. If the hash doesn't match, Windows asks which app to use.

Firefox reverse-engineered it and writes an updated hash. Firefox does ask if you want to change your default, but it doesn't have to -- it could just do it.

 

[nimble]

It absolutely sucks and some people just do not understand how they can possibly have two programs that can open a PDF. The old Adobe plug-in for IE trained a generation of office drones that opening it in browser meant it was open in Adobe, and talking them through the differences is like talking your grandmother through a bare-metal Linux install over the phone.

Arch or Gentoo?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Great, now make it so that when I associate PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, your updates don't undo that and associate them back with Edge.

What about:

Application “Edge” would like to replace the default app for PDF files (”Acrobat”), please choose:

1) Allow change.
2) Deny change and ask no more.
3) Uninstall “Edge”.

 

[nimble]

Microsoft, you're the ones who created this problem in the first place! Back in Windows 7, file associations weren't randomly reverting to MS's preferred defaults. That's something they introduced in Windows 10. Just... stop trying to force your stuff on us. I don't even see why you care if we use your browser. We paid for your OS already and the browser's free so what difference does it make to you?

Because they can track you more easily in Edge to grab a slice of the advertising pie.

 

[Tinolyn]

Great, now make it so that when I associate PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, your updates don't undo that and associate them back with Edge.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

AND DAMMIT, bring back the ONE list of "background apps" that you can toggle on/off, instead of the monstrosity the app setup is now, where you have to go into each app to change that setting.

Also - stop changing my start menu's setup every damned update. And it's not even right after the update. It's like 2 days later, BAM - completely different start menu.

 

[Spud Spudly]

There are prompts to switch to Edge in Win11 after you change it our as your default? Never saw that before.

 

[LordDaMan]

OH THANK GOD

No, REALLY. As an administrator who develops and deploys Adobe forms for our program, you have NO FLIPPING IDEA how many times I have had to talk people through the incredibly difficult task of opening a PDF in Acrobat.

"No, you opened it in Edge. No, your PDF viewer is not outdated, that's what you see when a form like that is opened in Edge. No, there is nothing wrong with the form, you just need to open it in Adobe. Nope, you downloaded the form, but you double-clicked it and it opened up in Edge again. You can't fill the form out and sign it in Edge, you need to do it in Adobe."

It absolutely sucks and some people just do not understand how they can possibly have two programs that can open a PDF. The old Adobe plug-in for IE trained a generation of office drones that opening it in browser meant it was open in Adobe, and talking them through the differences is like talking your grandmother through a bare-metal Linux install over the phone.

(Filling out forms in any viewer other than Acrobat consistently breaks form field automation, strips out any scripting, flattens the form making entries impossible to batch-export, and so on. I really and truly hate how bad people are at forms.)

It's not exactly acrobat in your browser. It's the sane exact PDF viewer UI only with an acrobat badge in the lower right hand corner.

I imagine it would handle forms ok because acrobat does.

----

WE have come a long way from Vista days when Adobe was trying to go after microsoft for embrace and extend of the PDF format even though microsoft just added PDF support to office and produced bog standard PDFs

 

[caution live frogs]

Arch or Gentoo?

Slackware, with a SCSI CD drive.

(Having actually fought my way through such an install ca. 2004 or so, the pain levels feel comparable)

 

[Improbus-Liber]

I am so glad I moved off Windows years ago... no longer at Microsoft's non-existent mercy and competence.

 

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The person at Microsoft crusading to turn Windows into the a vestigial set of supporting libraries and a HAL for Edge must finally have lost their battle.