Every file on Windows is assigned a default program. The default program is the application that is launched and tries to read the file when you double-click or open it. Only, it is possible to change the default program associated with the files and set your favorite applications as default program. Here are the tips to do it on Windows 10.
Change Default Program on Windows 10 via Windows Settings
- To change a default program for playing a file on Windows 10, start by opening the "Settings" by, for example, right-clicking on the Windows 10 Start menu and then selecting Settings.
- Then, click first on "Applications".
- Then, on the left, click then on "Default Applications".
Your operating system will present you with a list of all the default applications available on your computer. If you click on a default application, you will be presented with another list of applications that you can modify. - At this stage, you just need to choose the new default program and from that moment on it will run to read all the files of the selected category. Click on the name of the default open application for the proposed actions (Email, Maps, Music Player, Photo Viewer, Video Player, Web Browser) and then select the new default program from the proposed list.
For example, to surf the internet, you can choose your favorite browser like Mozilla Firefox, Google chrome, Brave, Microsoft Edge etc.as we had explained to you in the article to change the default browser in Windows 10.
For your email, you can set Outlook or Thunderbird as the default software to read your emails.
Change Default Program on Windows 10 using File Explorer
To change the default program on Windows 10 by using File Explorer, here is how to proceed:
- Open the file explorer by using for example the keyboard shortcut Windows key + E.
- Then, right click on the file whose default program you want to change. This will be valid for all files with the same file extension as the selected one.
- In the menu that will appear, click on "open with".
- Then choose the application of your choice from the list of default applications compatible with your file. You can also choose the application you want to set as default by clicking on "Choose another application".
- Once you have chosen the application, don’t forget to check the box "Always use this application to open files".
- Finish the operation by clicking on "OK". If you want to display more apps to open this type of file in Windows 10, just press "More apps".
In case the default reading application you have chosen is not displayed, you can click "Search for another application on this PC". You will be offered several other applications to play your file.