How To Change Open With Settings Windows 10

Windows Logo When Microsoft introduced Windows 8 back in 2022, they also introduced a whole slew of apps that came pre-installed or that you could purchase from the Windows Store. These apps are more than similar ones you install on your smartphone or tablet than the desktop applications you used to install from .exe files on CDs (or downloaded from a software company's website). Merely you could still install the latter, making your system a hybrid of traditional programs and new apps. Windows 10 continues this hybrid model, which isn't a bad matter since information technology lets you choose which version of each programme y'all prefer to work with.

The problem arises when at that place's a Windows ten app that does the same basic part (e.one thousand. e-mail, graphic pattern, video player etc.) every bit a traditional program and decides to brand its ain app the default for opening and using those files.

What exercise I mean by default programs?

The best example for me is Microsoft's Reader app for reading PDF files. I adopt to use Adobe Acrobat (or Adobe Reader if I'm on a computer where Acrobat isn't installed) to read PDFs because I'm more familiar with it. And while I tin can just open Acrobat and then browse for the PDF file I want to read/work on, there are times when I but double-click on a PDF file to open it, e.g. when I get a PDF attachment in an email or from a link on a website.

When I did that before it would automatically open up Acrobat, but after I installed Windows 8 and so 10, it opened Microsoft's Reader app instead. That app would likewise open automatically when I create a PDF file from another program similar Give-and-take.

And information technology's not simply Reader. Most of the defaults are prepare to built-in Microsoft apps instead of third-party programs that you may adopt, e.g. the Edge browser instead of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. And information technology even happens with Microsoft'south own standalone programs—for instance, I utilise Outlook for email but the default for Windows 10 is its Post app.

Ugh.

Changing the default program for specific file types

Note: The following instructions volition only piece of work if you have the program installed locally on your calculator. If you're using a cloud-based version of a program ~~—including Microsoft's own Office 365 applications—~~ at that place doesn't seem to be any style to make those the default. Update: I've since discovered that fifty-fifty though I'm using Office 365 (version 2022), I practice have a local version of the program every bit well, but information technology does require ane of the steps outlined further downwards this mail to make it the default.

There are two ways you tin change what programme opens past default for any given file type.

Click the Outset button and commencement typing "Default".

After a few letters, "Default Programs" will appear in the search results. Click that.

The window that opens has a few of the more than popular apps listed, like email and browser, but non 1 for opening PDF files.

Scroll down and click the Choose Default Apps by File Blazon link.

A screen will appear listing all the different file types and the default programs they're currently associated with.

Scroll down to the file type for which yous want to change the default program.

Click the icon for the current default program.

A card volition open up that lets you select from programs installed on your computer that can open that file type.

Notation: If the one you desire isn't listed, y'all can scroll down and click the link to look for a new app in the Windows Store.

Now when I double-click on the PDF file in my email, Adobe Acrobat automatically launches instead of Microsoft Reader.

Woo-hoo!

But WAIT…

The process above has one major limitation. Sometimes the program y'all desire isn't already listed in the dropdown menu and if it's non a Windows Store app, you lot're stuck. ~~In that instance, we can become back to a archetype Windows tool: Command Console.~~

UPDATE: Thanks to several readers for bringing this to my attention, but unfortunately it looks like Microsoft has institute a way to eliminate the Control Console workaround as well as one I had explained previously using the Run control to get to the one-time File Clan screen by having the relevant screens redirect to the standard Settings page. I have no idea why they're then dead set confronting people choosing the programs they want as their defaults but they keep picking off solutions i by one. *sigh*

At present what?

I have a few last options to attempt that accept worked for me to switch the default from Word 2022 (from Office 365) to Word 2010 and back once more. I make no guarantees they will piece of work for other applications or even these ones for everybody, but they're worth a try, at least until Microsoft decides to break them likewise…

Use the Open With control.

In File Explorer, right-click on a file whose default program you desire to modify. Select Open With > Choose Another App.

Cheque the box that says "Always utilize this app to open .[file extension] files." If the program y'all want to use is displayed, select information technology and click OK.

If the plan isn't listed, coil down and click on More Apps. If information technology *still* isn't listed, curlicue down and click on "Await for another app on this PC".

That will open a dialog box that will let you drill down to observe the .exe file for the application you want to brand the default.

Annotation: When the Browse dialog opens, it may automatically get-go at the Program Files folder on your calculator. Depending on the application you want, y'all may have to go up a level to the Program Files (x86) folder and find your .exe file nether that path.

Also, some .exe files can accept really weird paths that make them hard to discover. For example, hither are my paths for Word 2010 and Word 2022 respectively:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Role\Office14\WINWORD.EXE

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Function\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE

Use the Plan Repair Function

This is what has worked for me with the ii different versions of Word I take. I "repaired" the one I want as the default and that seems to make it the priority of the 2 of them. And once I repaired both programs, they now both show upwards in the listing of Open With apps so I can more hands switch between them again.

To get to the repair feature, click the Windows push button and start typing "Apps & features" until it appears in the search results.

Click it to become to that screen, then on the right-mitt side nether Related Settings, click on Programs & Features.

That will bring you to the Control Panel screen where you tin select the program you want to make the default. Click modify and follow the instructions to repair the program (they volition exist different depending on the awarding).

Uninstall and Reinstall the Plan

This is obviously the option of last resort but if nothing else works, it'southward worth trying to reinstall the program you want to be the default. Originally I only had Discussion 16 on this computer, only when I installed Discussion 2010, it became the default. The Repair option above is what let me switch back and along between these two versions without having to reinstall again.

Select the plan you desire to be the default.

Having no default

Occasionally you may find yourself with a file type that you don't desire to associate with whatever default plan at all but somehow gets one assigned to it. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a way to remove a default that has been set. 🙁

Setting different programs for opening and editing files

A T4L reader commented below that in Windows XP (aka Microsoft's Best Operating System Always) yous could gear up different programs for opening a file vs. editing it. Yous tin can't do information technology hands in Windows 10, simply I did notice 1 article that shows how to change the program for the Edit bill of fare for one application by editing a registry entry. I haven't tested it myself and y'all e'er have to be careful when making changes to the registry, just if you need to do this, y'all can check it out to run into if information technology will work for your purposes:

How to Use the Windows Right-Click 'Edit' to Launch Photoshop Instead of MS Paint (TekRevue, 08/07/xv)

You lot may also be interested in:

Windows 8.1: Change the Default Program for Opening Files

Microsoft Products: News, Views, & How-Tos

Filed Under: Apps, How To, Popular, Pinnacle Ten, User Interface, Windows 10 Tagged With: PDF

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