Yesterday, I showed you a quick tip for assigning a default program to a particular file in Windows 10. Click here to read that tip. Today, we’ll take a closer look at how to control defaults and associations in Windows 10.
I’m seriously thinking about titling my next Windows 10 book, “Type it in the search box.” Because that’s the answer to almost anything in Windows 10. Let us being by typing Default Apps in the search box and clicking on the results.
You can scroll down and choose your preferred apps for Email, photo viewing, playing music, and more.
To change, just click on the default app. And choose the app you prefer from the list presented.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see options to choose default apps by file type, protocol, or to set defaults by app.
Click File types and you can scroll down the list of file types and then select the app you wish to open it.
For example, if I want to change the default for opening .mp3 files, I can tap or click on the current default and choose an alternative from the drop-down menu.
If you don’t see an alternative listed, there may not be a program capable of performing that task installed.
Choosing Default apps by protocol, gives you another list with the protocol in the left column and the default for each protocol in the right. Tap on the default program to see your choices.
To check which types of files are associated with an App, choose. Set defaults by app.
You’ll see a long list of all of the apps on your PC sorted alphabetically. Scroll down to find the app you need. Choose the app you want to perform a task and then select Manage.
You can then select the type of file, click or tap on the assigned default app, and change the default app from the drop-down menu.
If you have any more questions, just ask.
Thank you. I’m wondering however, why it must take so many steps to do a task. And, if I didn’t have your step by step instructions, I would get just so far and then not know what to do next.
You may access the settings directly through the settings tool. Choose “settings” and then “apps.” I just went through this a couple of days ago. I had somehow set a default that wasn’t what I really wanted. The “catch” to selecting a default program by clicking the “make this the default” box on the “open with” menu from a right click on the object is, once you have used it, it seems not to appear ever again. (You are still able to open the object in question with a different program choice by a right click, but you have to do this every time, and it’s a pain in the a**.) So, if you inadvertently set a program as the default, or change your programs, or change your mind, you can make a new selection only by burrowing through the system settings window.