Windows 11 will finally make it easier to choose the default browser

Microsoft is backing down on choosing the default browser on Windows 11. Up until now, the change required several steps that were anything but easy for the general public to guess.

Changing the default browser in Windows 11 will become easier

The build 22509 of Windows 11, currently in test, allows you to choose your default browser with a button. As Rafael Rivera’s screenshots show, a message stating “Make Chrome your default browser” appears in the operating system settings and you can click “Set as default”. In this case, Chrome will replace Microsoft Edge and any links the user clicks will open in Chrome. Obviously, the same scenario exists for Firefox and the other existing browsers. Chrome is just one example here.

“In Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22509 released on the Dev Channel on Wednesday, we made it easier for a Windows Insider member to set the default browser for apps that register with HTTP, HTTPS, HTM, and HTML, ” said Aaron Woodman, Windows vice president of marketing, at The Verge. He adds that testers will “continue to see us trying new things based on feedback” and their feedback.

The fact that the one-click option is present is good news for anyone who doesn’t want to use Microsoft Edge by default. Previously, you had to ask Windows to open HTM, HTML, PDF, SHTML, SVG, WEBP, XHT, XHTML, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS files with your preferred browser. Microsoft must have suspected that the general public would not understand these terms and thus stay on their Edge browser. But many advanced users complained, as did competitors with Mozilla (Firefox) and Google (Chrome).

We must now wait until the update is available to everyone in a stable version. It will be sometime in 2022, but there is no specific date yet.