Last year, Microsoft made it frustratingly difficult to change your default browser in Windows 11, but a new Windows update released this week makes it really easy to switch.
As The Verge reports, a new non-security Windows update released yesterday (KB5011563) introduces a single-click solution to changing your default web browser. With the update installed, you can navigate to Settings > Apps > Default apps and then search for your preferred browser. A button should then appear allowing it to become the default with a click.
Last year, Microsoft decided to force Windows 11 users to change every file type associated with the web if they wanted to use a different browser as their default. That meant reassociating .html, .svg, .pdf, .ftp, and the list goes on. Thankfully, Microsoft listened to the complaints and started testing a “Set Default” button back in December. Now that button has finally made it out into the wild.
Although welcome, there’s another “I don’t want to use Edge” problem this update won’t solve. In November last year, Microsoft decided to start forcing Windows 11 users to use the Edge browser for certain tasks. It was already impossible to uninstall Microsoft’s browser, but now it automatically loads for any microsoft-edge:// format link clicked. Perhaps a future update will undo that change too, but I won’t hold my breath.
