Most people have more than one web browser installed on their computer. If you are a Windows user, then you will have Microsoft Edge installed by default. There are many other browsers you can install in addition to Edge such as Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
Watch Video: Setup an Option to Choose Which Browser is to be Used for Opening Website Links
When you click on a link within an email or a Word document for example, Windows will open that link with your default browser. And if you want to open that link with a different browser, you will need to copy the link and then paste it into the address bar of that other web browser.
For those who want to have more control over what browser is used to open links, you can actually setup an option to choose which browser is used for opening these website links. In order to do this, you will need to install a couple of software packages.
The first one is called Winget, also known as the Windows Package Manager, and this is a command- line tool developed by Microsoft for Windows. It allows users to discover, install, upgrade, remove, and configure applications on Windows systems. You can download the Winget software from the same website where you will find the other software package that is needed to make this link selection feature work (BrowserSelect). You can then use Winget to install additional software later if you find something you want to check out.
Once you download the installer file, simply double click it to run it and you should see a screen similar to the image below. All you need to do is click on the Update button and the installation will be complete.
To install BrowserSelect, simply copy the command from the same page as you downloaded the software. Then open a command prompt by typing cmd in the Windows taskbar search box. You can then right click in the command prompt box to paste in the command that you copied from the website.
You will need to type in Y to accept the source agreement term.
Then the BrowserSelect software installation will be completed.
In order to have Browser Select work properly, you will need to set it as your default web browser. To do so, go to the Windows settings and then to Apps > Default Apps. Then choose BrowserSelect from the list and then click the Set default button.
Now when you click on a link from an email, document, instant message and so on, you will be asked which browser you want to open the link with. The choices you see will be based on what web browsers you have installed on your computer. One thing to keep in mind is that if you were to click on a link on a webpage while in a particular web browser, that link would be opened in the same browser, and you will not be prompted to choose one.
When you click the Always button under a particular web browser, then that browser will be used to open that website every time and you will not be prompted.
If you click on the Settings button, you would be shown any websites that you have chosen to always be open with a particular browser. You can then change the default browser for that site or remove the entry so you will be prompted next time you click a link for that site.
If you install another web browser after installing BrowserSelect, you will need to come back to the settings and add it to the list of available browser choices. You can also remove a particular browser if you do not want it to be shown as an option.
If you no longer want to be prompted for which browser is to be used for opening website links, you can either go back to the default apps setting and change it to another browser or uninstall the BrowserSelect software.
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