Last updated: November 14, 2019
- Watch the companion video: Change the default browser in Windows 10
Most web browser applications available today are based upon the Chromium open-source browser project. At the top of the Chromium-based browser popularity list — with a 63% market share — is Google Chrome. Yet Windows 10, with a 42% market share for operating systems, garners a meager 2% market share for its home-brewed Microsoft Edge browser. Edge happens to be the default Windows 10 browser. It stands to reason that if you are not going to use Edge, you might as well change the default browser in Windows 10 to the one you prefer.
Before doing so, it is important to mention that Microsoft is developing a Chromium version of Microsoft Edge. The Chromium-based Edge moved into beta on August 20, 2019. The expected release date of the new Edge browser is in late 2019 or early 2020. At that time, Microsoft will likely swap the old Edge for the new Edge. I have been running the developer version of the new Edge since early 2019, and now run the beta version. For the sake of this article, I will change the default browser in Windows 10 from the old Edge to the privacy-focused Brave browser. Windows 10 allows users to change the default browser to any installed browser.
Change the default browser
Microsoft makes it easy to change the default browser in a few mouse clicks without any complicated coding or registry edits. To get started, click the Start button and choose Settings (or press the Windows logo key on your keyboard + I).
In the Settings window, click or tap Apps.
Next, in the left navigation of the Apps menu, click or tap Default apps. In the right-hand pane, scroll down to Web browser where you will find Microsoft Edge pre-selected as the default web browser app. Click or tap Microsoft Edge.
In the Choose an app window, click or tap the browser from the list of installed browsers that you want for your new default browser. As stated earlier, my choice for a new default browser is the fast, private, and secure Brave browser.
With Brave selected as the default web browser app, content that launches in your browser, such as a link clicked in an email, now launches in Brave instead of Edge.
Watch the companion video to see how to change the default browser in Windows 10 on a step by step basis.
Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to learn how to change the default browser in Windows 10 to something other than Microsoft Edge.
Henry Irvine, Contributing Technology Writer, translates more than a decade of internet technology experience in product and customer relationship management into practical help and how-to content. Look for him on Bay Area trails, music venues, or sausage shacks when he’s not writing. Don’t call him Hank if you see him. Seriously. Hank on Twitter
