cannot change default browser
 

I've been using Chrome for a few years and decided to try Firefox. When I
try to change the Default Browser and select Firefox--or anything else!--
nothing happens. I seem to be stuck with Chrome. I will uninstall it and
that should fix things, but why does Chrome "stick" like this?

cannot change default browser
 

On Sun, 31 Dec 2017 23:17:34 -0500 "Jason" wrote
in article

I've been using Chrome for a few years and decided to try Firefox. When I
try to change the Default Browser and select Firefox--or anything else!--
nothing happens. I seem to be stuck with Chrome. I will uninstall it and
that should fix things, but why does Chrome "stick" like this?

I tried using the Firefox options panel to change the default and it
worked. Dunno why the Windows Settings panel didn't.

cannot change default browser
 

Jason wrote:
On Sun, 31 Dec 2017 23:17:34 -0500 "Jason" wrote
in article
I've been using Chrome for a few years and decided to try Firefox. When I
try to change the Default Browser and select Firefox--or anything else!--
nothing happens. I seem to be stuck with Chrome. I will uninstall it and
that should fix things, but why does Chrome "stick" like this?

I tried using the Firefox options panel to change the default and it
worked. Dunno why the Windows Settings panel didn't.

It would work if you selected MSEdge :-)

Paul

cannot change default browser
 

Jason wrote:
On Sun, 31 Dec 2017 23:17:34 -0500 "Jason" wrote
in article
I've been using Chrome for a few years and decided to try Firefox. When I
try to change the Default Browser and select Firefox--or anything else!--
nothing happens. I seem to be stuck with Chrome. I will uninstall it and
that should fix things, but why does Chrome "stick" like this?

I tried using the Firefox options panel to change the default and it
worked. Dunno why the Windows Settings panel didn't.

Chrome can apparently do a bit of reg damage.

https://www.tenforums.com/browsers-e...dows-10-a.html

I suspect someone latched onto a reg file for Chrome, rather than
writing this themselves. You can see that Chrome is "over the top"
in terms of the size of the file.

https://www.tenforums.com/general-su...dows-10-a.html

*******

Right now, a place to start is:

Settings : Apps : Default Apps

which also has "Choose Default Apps by File Type"
further down the page.

But the Tutorial on this topic is just Endless Dribble.
MS ruined it. It might have made sense at one time.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

Disabling the "Keep using this App" is described here. A GPEdit for Pro.

https://superuser.com/questions/9933...open-this-file

Paul

cannot change default browser
 

On Sun, 31 Dec 2017 23:17:34 -0500, Jason
wrote:

I've been using Chrome for a few years and decided to try Firefox. When I
try to change the Default Browser and select Firefox--or anything else!--
nothing happens. I seem to be stuck with Chrome. I will uninstall it and
that should fix things, but why does Chrome "stick" like this?

I have never seen that myself but I'm not shocked that Google - the
company which wants to know everything about you, sell that
information and even control your thoughts - would do that with their
product.

cannot change default browser
 

On Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:01:31 -0500 "Paul" wrote in
article
It would work if you selected MSEdge :-)

Paul



Actually, it did not work! In the Win Settings panel, I was offered Edge,
IE, Chrome, and FF and couldn't change any of them.

cannot change default browser
 

On Mon, 01 Jan 2018 13:53:46 -0500 "Doomsdrzej" wrote in
article


I have never seen that myself but I'm not shocked that Google - the
company which wants to know everything about you, sell that
information and even control your thoughts - would do that with their
product.

That's why I switched... As I read recently about Google (and Facebook
and ...) "You are not their customer. You are their product." Chilling.

cannot change default browser
 

"Jason" wrote

| It would work if you selected MSEdge :-)
|
| Actually, it did not work! In the Win Settings panel, I was offered Edge,
| IE, Chrome, and FF and couldn't change any of them.

That kind of thing is almost tradition. When it was
only IE and Netscape, both would muck up Registry
settings trying to take over as default. Eventually
they started behaving better. But as others have said,
I wouldn't put anything past Google. I think of them like
the Crusaders: They'll kill you trying to convert you to
their operation, all the while muttering about never
being evil.

It sounds like you've fixed it. If you ever get to
where you can't fix it, you can do it by hand. The
default handlers for file extensions are in the Registry
under HKCR\.html, etc.

I actually like to have IE as default. I never use it online
and block it from going through the firewall, but it's quick
and handy for reading HTML files locally. That setup also
means that when I accidetnally click something that
tries to call home by starting up the default browser,
that attempt is automatically blocked because IE can't
go out.
I then use a combination of FF and Pale Moon as
browsers. I just don't click links in email or put Web
shortcuts on my desktop. I open the browser directly
and paste URLs if necessary.

cannot change default browser
 

Jason wrote:
On Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:01:31 -0500 "Paul" wrote in
article
It would work if you selected MSEdge :-)

Paul



Actually, it did not work! In the Win Settings panel, I was offered Edge,
IE, Chrome, and FF and couldn't change any of them.

There are a series of Registry merge files (.reg) for your
inspection here. They include file extension (HTML) and protocol (HTTP).
Missing is HTTPS. These are mainly for examination in Notepad.
*Don't* just double click them. You can add .txt to the end
of the name, to make it a bit safer.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

In one of those files, I can see a concerted effort to set some competing
browsers to "zero" :-) Which presumably stops them from being
offered in some menu.

Some of the entries are protected with a hash. This may be
an attempt to detect "interference" from things that don't
know how to generate the associated hash.

While the description for html.reg says it's for "Microsoft Edge",
the visible evidence inside is it's a file to associate
Internet Explorer. Brink has offered files like this before for
Win8 and Win7, and these might have been brought forward from
one of his other web sites (sevenforums, eightforums).

Before you'd actually run one of those, you'd want a backup to protection
you from making a mess. I don't know how good those are, and how
they were extracted from the OS in the first place. Since Windows
has a "restoring defaults" button, the content may actually
be coming from the system resource that carries that out. Rather
than being vacuumed out of the registry after a clean install.

Paul