How to Change Default Apps in Windows 11

A "default app" is simply the program Windows opens automatically when you double-click a file or click a link. Photos open in the Photos app, web links open in a browser, PDFs open in whatever reader is set — until you change it. Windows 11 gives you two ways to think about defaults: per file or link type (this extension opens in that app) and per app (show me everything this program is allowed to open, and let me hand it more). This guide walks through both, plus the two things people ask about most — setting a default browser, and resetting the whole lot back to Microsoft's recommendations.

Everything below lives in one place: Settings → Apps → Default apps — the same route Microsoft gives in its Change default apps in Windows support article, which also covers typing a file extension or protocol into the search box to reassign it. Windows 11 moved this out of the old Control Panel entirely, so if you remember the Windows 7-era "Set your default programs" window, forget it — the modern Settings page is the only supported route now.

Open the Default apps page

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings (or click Start and choose the gear icon).
2. Select Apps in the left-hand list.
3. Select Default apps.

A faster shortcut: press Windows, type default apps, and open the top result — it drops you straight onto this page. The full path Windows uses is:

Settings > Apps > Default apps

The page shows a search box at the top, a long list of your installed apps below it, and — right at the bottom — a reset control. Those three areas map to the three jobs in this guide.

Set the default for one file type or link type

This is the most precise method, and the one Microsoft recommends for most changes. Instead of hunting through an app, you tell Windows exactly which extension or protocol you care about and choose its handler.

1. On the Default apps page, find the box labelled Set a default for a file type or link type near the top.
2. Type the file extension (such as .pdf, .txt, .jpg or .html) or the link type / protocol (such as HTTP, HTTPS or MAILTO) you want to change.
3. Select the matching result. Windows shows the app currently assigned to it.
4. Select that current app tile. A How do you want to open this? chooser appears listing the apps that can handle it.
5. Pick the app you want and select Set default (older builds say OK). The change takes effect immediately.

Set defaults by app

The other approach is to start from a program and see everything it is allowed to open. This is handy after you install something new — say VLC or a PDF reader — and want to hand it several file types at once.

1. On the Default apps page, scroll the app list or type the app's name to find it, then select it.
2. You now see every file type and link type that app can open, each showing which program is currently the default for it.
3. Select any type you want to reassign, choose your preferred app in the How do you want to open this? chooser, and select Set default.
4. Repeat for each type you want that app to own — for example set .mkv, .mp4 and .avi all to VLC.

There is no single "make this app the default for everything" button here, and that is deliberate: Windows 11 asks you to confirm each type so an installer can't silently grab file associations you didn't intend to give away.

Set your default browser (and the per-type reality)

Choosing a default browser is the request that trips most people up, because a browser is not one setting — it is a whole collection of file and link types. To truly move web browsing to Chrome, Firefox, Edge or anything else, those types all have to point at it.

1. Install the browser you want first, so Windows knows it exists.
2. Go to Settings → Apps → Default apps and select that browser from the app list.
3. On current Windows 11 builds, a Set default button sits near the top of the browser's page — Microsoft's own instructions for changing your default browser in Windows use exactly this control. Selecting it reassigns the main web types — HTTP, HTTPS, .html and .htm — to that browser in one action.
4. Scroll down the same page and check the remaining types. In particular, PDF (.pdf) and feed or FTP links often stay with another app, so set each one you care about individually using the steps in the per-type section above.

On Windows 10 the story is friendlier: Settings → Apps → Default apps has a dedicated Web browser tile at the top, and picking a browser there moves the common web types in a single step — no per-type hunting required. The per-type page still exists lower down if you need it.

Reset to Microsoft's recommended defaults

If your associations have become a mess — an installer grabbed everything, or you just want a clean slate — Windows 11 can put every default back to what Microsoft recommends in one move.

1. Go to Settings → Apps → Default apps.
2. Scroll to the very bottom of the page to the Reset all default apps option (some builds label the button simply Reset next to that heading).
3. Select it and confirm when prompted.

This returns every file type and link type to Microsoft's suggested apps — typically Edge for web and PDF, Photos for images, and Media Player for audio and video — and undoes any custom choices you made. It only affects your user account; other accounts on the PC keep their own settings.

Bonus: change a default straight from File Explorer

You don't always need Settings. When you only want to reassign a single file type, do it from the file itself:

1. In File Explorer, right-click a file of the type you want to change.
2. Choose Open with → Choose another app.
3. Pick the app you want, tick Always use this app to open .ext files, and select OK.

That permanently sets the default for that one extension and matches what the Settings page would do — it's just faster when you're already looking at the file.

Wrapping up

Default apps in Windows 11 all funnel through Settings → Apps → Default apps. Think in terms of types: set an individual extension or protocol from the search box, hand a whole batch to one app from that app's page, and remember that a browser is several types that each need pointing at it. When things get tangled, Reset all default apps gives you a clean, Microsoft-recommended starting point in a single click.