Like Apple with its iOS, Microsoft often forces users to utilize its own applications on its Windows OS. Since the Windows 10 update release, the Microsoft Edge browser is now well rooted within the system. Although the browser has gotten far better than the ancient Internet Explorer, many people might still prefer to stick with their Google Chrome browser considering the large impact of Google account on internet users worldwide.
That is the essence of this short BP-Hack, which is guiding through how you can easily switch a couple of default applications in Windows 10 to your favorite.
For example, the Edge Browser is the default web browser for the operating system and it’s also the default application for viewing any web document with the HTML extension and PDF extension, especially when you don’t have an Adobe Acrobat program installed on your computer.
If you’re one of the Edge haters and don’t want to have anything to do with the application, the best thing to do is to remove it from your taskbar and remove it as your default web browser rather than trying to install the program because doing so might cause a big issue with the overall performance of the Windows 10 operating system as a whole.
The program is well-rooted within the operating system so much that a forceful removal/uninstallation can cause a big problem unless you know what you’re doing.
But without any further ado, here is how to change some default applications on Windows to your preferred app.
Fastest way to replace default browser and apps on Windows 10
There are some ways by which you can switch from Microsoft Edge and replace it with your favorite browser – be it Opera web browser, Firefox, or Chrome.
First, you can simply go to your Windows Settings application and then type “Default Apps” to the search bar, or just use the combination (Win key + I) and open Apps >> Default apps >>.
Click on this and you’ll see a list of default applications all categorized.
On the list, you’ll see Mail application which you can change to your favorite even though the default Windows 10 email application is really cool and performs excellently, Then you can switch the web browser, the map application, photo viewer, video player, and any other thing you find on the list.
For the first step, you need to download a tool called EdgeDeflector. It is a lightweight application that intercepts any call made to Edge for links. It redirects those calls to the browser of your choice.
This is the fastest way of changing default Windows 10 apps to your very own favorite. This isn’t only fast, it’s also convenient because you wouldn’t need to go through the next step.
Other ways to change default apps on Windows 10
This isn’t as fast as the previous and it’s not 100% perfect because you’ll be missing some applications. So let’s assume you are a web developer or someone who often saves web pages directly on the computer. When the time comes and you want to preview the web page that you have saved, you’ll be prompted to select the application to run make that preview.
Sometimes, you might never gett his prompt because Windows 10 just use the default browser. To stop this, you can Right Click on the document and then look for the “Open With” option which will then show you some programs that can open that web document. In most cases, you’ll see browsers and some unrelated applications that can perform the task.
Instead of clicking on any of the programs presented to you by Windows 10, click on “Choose another program” which will open a new prompt where you can actually select any program you want. However, remember to click on the “Always use this app to open [the file-types]” checkbox before clicking on the “Okay” button.
Then you’ll notice that the file’s icon will change to the selected program’s icon which will allow you to easily open the file with that program when next you want to access it.
NOTE: Although you changed your default browser from Edge to something else in the Default App section doesn’t mean Edge won’t open some web-related content. For example, if you search a term on the Windows Search box, your result will be forced to open via the Edge browser and the default search engine will of course be Bing.
Deflect Edge
Okay, for the Microsoft Edge browser haters, what you have to do to send the app away for good is to download a small program called the EdgeDeflector from Github and then Install it.
Afterward, there will be a dialogue modal that requests how you want to open this. Just select EdgeDeflector and click Ok. With that, all forced Microsoft Edge links will be automatically opened in the browser of your choice.
NOTE: If you don’t get the dialogue, you can set the option manually.
For the manual setup, open Windows settings (Win key + I) and open Apps >> Default apps >> Choose default apps by protocol. Find the entry labeled “MICROSOFT-EDGE” and select Choose a default. Select EdgeDeflector in the menu that pops up.
With that, any link you open within the system will be redirected to the default app that you have set instead of the Microsoft Edge browser.
Replace Bing as default search engine for Windows 10
If you remember above, I mentioned that Microsoft is enforcing its own web search engine, Bing on all Windows 10 users. While Bing is a really powerful search engine, Google seems to be the gold standard of search in most countries across the globe which is why many don’t take Bing very seriously.
To use Google search in the search result within the Windows search box, you will also need to download a browser extension. For Chrome as well as Chrome-based browsers, you’ll need to install an extension called Chrometana Pro.
And if you are using Firefox, then install the Foxtrana extension. You can now redirect any Bing.com search to either Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, or Baidu. You can also redirect the search to any custom Search Engine of your choice by giving its URL and search parameter.
With that, any search within your Windows 10 PC will then be redirected to Google or whatever search engine you have selected. This will also work with Cortana virtual assistant as well as the Windows Search box at the Start Menu and even manual Bing searches that the Edge browser had enforced.
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