Windows 10 Default Browser: Fixing a Setting That Won’t Stick

On some earlier Windows 10 builds, trying to set your default web browser directly from Microsoft Edge straight to another browser like Google Chrome could silently fail — the change simply wouldn’t take, and Edge would remain the default despite the setting appearing to accept your choice.

The Workaround

1. Go to Settings > Apps > Default apps and click the current default web browser entry (showing Microsoft Edge).
2. Instead of selecting your target browser directly, select Internet Explorer first.
3. Confirm the switch when prompted (ignore the “why not try Edge” nudge).
4. Once Internet Explorer is confirmed as the default, go back into the same setting and select your actual target browser (e.g. Google Chrome).

This two-step “hop” through Internet Explorer as an intermediate default reliably applies the change where switching directly from Edge did not. If you’re on a current, fully-updated build of Windows 10 or Windows 11, this bug has generally not been reported in the same form — try setting the default directly first, and only use the Internet Explorer workaround if the direct method silently fails to stick.

This Workaround Is No Longer Needed (Updated for 2026)

The specific “won’t stick” bug this two-step Internet Explorer hop was designed around was an early Windows 10 issue, resolved by Microsoft through cumulative updates within roughly a year of Windows 10’s launch — it hasn’t been reported on any supported Windows 10 or Windows 11 build since. On current Windows 11, setting a default browser is simpler again: searching for your browser under Settings > Apps > Default apps and clicking Set default now applies it across every associated file type and protocol in one action, rather than requiring the old per-extension selection. One regional note: in the European Economic Area, Digital Markets Act compliance changes also let you fully uninstall Microsoft Edge and Bing outright, and removed the recurring “why not try Edge” nag prompts. Outside the EEA you still get the one-click default-browser switch, but Edge itself typically can’t be fully uninstalled.

Resources

• Microsoft
• Chrome