Do you have Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, and Google Chrome all installed in Windows 10? You can use any of them them to open Web pages, but you must specify which specific browser opens what.
Meanwhile, Windows has always allowed you to set a default app to launch particular files, but Windows 10 offers some handy and helpful new features to do so. Let's see how this works.
To set the default apps for your key software programs, click on the Start button > Settings > System > Default apps.
The right pane of the Default apps screen lists some of your core Windows 10 app categories with the name of the app currently set as the default. For example, your default email app may be the built-in Mail app. Your Music Player may be Groove Music. And your Web browser may be Microsoft Edge.
To change the default app for any of these categories, click on the category, and from the pop-up list, select the app you wish to use. For example, you may want to change your default Web browser from Edge to Internet Explorer.
Further, you can search for an app not listed by clicking "Look for an app in the Store."
Doing so launches the Microsoft Store app, which displays a list of apps that can open the associated file type.
From there, you can click on and install a particular app, which then becomes available if you want to set it as the default.
Let's go back to the Default apps screen. Should you change your mind and wish to revert back to all of the core Windows 10 default apps, click the Reset button.
Okay, well, that takes care of the core apps in Windows. But what if you want to set the default apps for other file categories. You can do that a number of ways. Click on the link to "Choose default apps by file type."
You'll see a looooong list of file extensions and descriptions along with their current default apps. To change the default app for a particular file type, click on the current default app and choose another one from the list. If you're not sure about a specific file type and app, search for them on the Web to make sure you choose a suitable default app.
Next, go back to the Default apps screen and click on the link to "Choose default apps by protocol."
This is a more widespread way of setting a default app by category. Most of these you won't want to change. But with some, such as your Web browser, just click on the existing default app to change it to a different one.
Finally, jump back to the Default apps screen and click "Set defaults by app."
Here, you can choose the app that you want to set as the default for a particular type of file. Click on the name of an app, and you have two choices.
"Set this program as default" sets the default app for all file types associated with a particular category. For example, setting Paint as the default means it will open all graphic file types, including GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIF.
"Choose defaults for this program" lets you choose the file types you want to open with this app. For example, you can choose to open GIF and JPG files with Paint but open PNG and TIF files with the Windows Photo Viewer.
