A fresh Windows 11 PC opens every link in Edge, and installing Chrome or Firefox does not change that on its own. Switching takes about a minute in Settings, but a few file types, startup habits and built-in features can still send you back to Edge. This guide covers the switch, the types worth checking, and the fixes for Edge creeping back.
Make your browser the default in Settings
Install the browser first and open it once, so Windows registers it.
- Press Win + I, then choose Apps in Settings.
- Select Default apps.
- Search for the browser by name in the Default apps search field, then select it in the results.
- Select Set default in the upper part of its page.
- Click a link in an email or another app to confirm it opens in the new browser. To keep it a click away, pin the browser to the taskbar.
Check the file and link types Edge can still hold
The browser's page in Default apps lists each type it can open: .htm, .html, HTTP and HTTPS decide where web links and saved web pages go, and PDF, SVG, WEBP, .shtml, .xht, .xhtml and FTP sit alongside them. The Set default button covers the main four, but it may leave Edge in charge of the rest, PDF files included. If one of the four still shows Edge, select it and pick your browser from the list that appears. A type that is not listed can be entered in that same search field and assigned the same way.
Set the default from inside Chrome, Firefox or Brave
Each browser has its own button, and most of them hand you over to Windows to finish.
- Chrome: open the menu with three vertical dots, go to Settings, then Default browser, and select Make default. Windows opens Default apps so you can confirm the choice.
- Firefox: open the menu, go to Settings, find the Default browser section and select Make Default. If Windows shows a notice that Firefox's Make Default button could not complete the change, finish in Default apps as above.
- Brave: open the menu, go to Settings, then Get started, and select Make default.
Stop the default from switching back to Edge
If Edge keeps taking the default back, try the items below.
- Open Default apps again and look at HTTP and HTTPS separately.
- In Edge, go to Settings, then System and performance, and turn off Startup boost and Continue running background extensions when Microsoft Edge is closed.
- Open Task Manager, go to Startup apps, right-click Microsoft Edge and select Disable, so it stops launching when the PC starts.
- Finish with a restart.
Make Search and Widgets open your browser
Parts of Windows, including results in the Start search and the news and weather in Widgets, open their links through a microsoft-edge: address that ignores your default browser, so the steps above do not touch them. In the European Economic Area, Microsoft changed Widgets and the lock screen to follow the default browser. If news and weather still open in Edge there, open the Microsoft Store, go to Downloads, select Check for updates and install any update for Start Experiences App. Outside the EEA, a redirect utility such as MSEdgeRedirect still reroutes these links, while EdgeDeflector stopped working after a Windows update in late 2021.