On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 21:27:18 -0400, Nil wrote:

On 11 Sep 2013, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

In my FF, the checkbox says "Always check to see if Firefox is the
default browser...". Then the next time you start FF, it gives you
the opportunity to make it the default. Besides that huge degree
of subtlety, the checkbox is buried a bit in FF's menus under
Tools[1].

Well, it does take a bit of work & thinking to make it happen that
way, but it still beats reinstalling FF or clobbering the
registry.

Yes, you're right - the big button is in IE, not Firefox. Your method
is the correct way.

XP had an "establish defaults" setup area where you could also indicate
the default browser, email client, etc. I'm not at my Win8 computer to
check if there is something similar. In any case, hacking at the
Registry is dangerous and completely unnecessary when you can easily
and safely do it all through a user interface.

That "establish defaults" thing sounds familiar. Maybe I've seen it in
W7 (not W8, sorry).

OK, when I click on the Start Orb (sorry, as I said, it's W7), on the
right side of the panel is an entry "Default Programs". Once it loads,
you can click on several categories, including "Set your default
programs", which after taking a half hour[1] to populate its window,
gives a list of programs. Click on a program and feel free to mess
things up.

I don't know whether that offers a clue about how to proceed in W8.

[1] A couple of minutes :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)