Change Default Browser

Question

Does Windows 10 Professional have a Powershell script or command to change the default browser to Edge?

Answer 1

Setting default file associations is a complex process, normally involving an XML file to list the defaults and then using DISM to deploy the list. Read about it here: Set Microsoft Edge as the default browser 

Here's a cheeky way of doing it that relies on Windows objecting to a change in the user's choice of browser. If you remove the user choice key from the registry, Windows should enforce its own default, which is Edge. The user should see a notification to this effect:

... at which point the user can of course change it to something else using the Default apps settings page.

You could create a simple batch file to delete the most obvious keys using REG DELETE:

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.htm\UserChoice

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.html\UserChoice

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice

Please try this on a test machine having backed up the keys before deleting them, and come back here to tell us how you got on. You use my suggestion at your own risk!

Answer 2

Genius! We have been looking for a way to set Edge as the default browser for all users via GPO but still allow them to change it. Your fabulous find was just the trick we needed to make it work via GPP. We only needed to delete the shell association keys to accomplish our goal.

Example GPP included in case others are searching for a solution (which I KNOW they are):

Thank you so much for this! So silly to me that the ADMX MS Edge template has a "Set Microsoft Edge as default browser" config but all it does is show a "set as default" button to the user if it's not the default browser!