How to Change the Default Browser on Windows 11

Links from email, documents, and other apps keep opening in Microsoft Edge even though you use a different browser. Windows 11 lets you switch the default in one click, as long as the browser you want is already installed.

Install the browser first

If you have not already, download and install Chrome, Firefox, Brave, or whichever browser you prefer. Open it once so it finishes setup. Many browsers offer to become the default on first run; if you accept that offer, the browser sends you to the same Settings page described below.

Open Default apps

Press Windows + I, select Apps in the left sidebar, then click Default apps. You will see a search box and a list of installed apps.

Choose the browser

Type the browser's name in the search box, or scroll down and click it in the list. Its page shows every file type and link type it can handle, with the current default for each shown alongside.

Click Set default

At the top of the browser's page, next to the line about making it your default browser, click Set default. Windows changes the .htm, .html, HTTP, and HTTPS entries to that browser in one step, and the button changes to show that the browser is now the default.

Check the list below the button if you also want the browser to open PDF files or other types. Click any entry that still shows a different app and pick your browser from the list that appears.

On Windows 10, the same page is at Settings, Apps, Default apps. Click the icon under Web browser and pick the new one.

Edge will still open some links. Windows uses a special link type for results from the taskbar search box, Widgets, and some Settings pages, and those always open in Edge regardless of the default. Every link in other apps and files follows the setting you chose.