User logs on that has HKCU…http\UserChoice\ProgId set to IE.HTTP, the registry entry is created and their default changed. Watching procmon and through my tests here’s how it goes: The rest is clear enough in the document, the Item-Level Targeting *DOES* go to HKCU to do the check.ĭoing it this way makes it work like the author says. Note: Setting it to HKCU sets it here which I don’t believe actually does anything: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\DefaultAssociationsConfiguration Hive Field: The Hive must be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, the article has an error saying HKEY_CURRENT_USER USER POLICY: This is a User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry setting (not computer) Grant McKinney hit the key parts but I still found the above confusing for a bit, so I’m hoping the below helps clarify for those that are initially confused like I was. Note that this will also keep kicking in if the user changes their browser default back to Internet Explorer, which might be what you want – but if not, you’d need to add another Item-level target using a flag file or registry setting to mark that the default browser has already been applied once.įirstly, thank you very much Adam Fowler, your article solved my issue (no idea why MS has made this so complex to do). This method worked quite well and gave me what I was after – a one time change from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, without bothering Chrome and Firefox users. Then, next time Group Policy evaluates, the registry setting will be out of scope and removed, so the default program assocations file registry setting will be removed.įor reference, Chrome will be the value ChromeHTML and Edge will be MSEdgeHTM. Next time someone logs on, the default program associations file will be read and apply the new browser default. Only when all this is true, will the XML reg key apply. This is checking the registry key path Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice The Group Policy registry setting will look like this: Instead of using the Group Policy setting, create a registry setting to apply a value to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SystemĭefaultAssociationsConfiguration - REG_SZ - Path to XML e.g. The Group Policy in the doco to set this XML is called Set a default associations configuration file – and all it’s doing is populating a registry key. PDF files to Microsoft Edge, remove that line from the code. PDF is included, so if you’d rather not default.
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I worked out how to do this based on current default browser and using GPO still, so here’s what I did:Īs per the doco above, create an XML file that sets Microsoft Edge as the default application for certain protocols: It doesn’t stop users from changing the associations, but it does reset the associations each time the user logs in – so not ideal if you want to set a default, but also allow flexibility. At the same time, I didn’t want to change Google Chrome default browser users as they’d already made that choice, and didn’t want to shove a similar Chromium browser down their throats.Īs per Microsoft’s doco you can use an XML file with default associations, and use Group Policy to point to that XML. Previously, we’d had business requirements to set IE as the default – but now that’s no longer required, I wanted to flip their default. I had a scenario where I wanted Internet Explorer users to be changed to Microsoft Edge. The New Microsoft Edge browser is great and everyone should use it :) Especially if you’re still on Internet Explorer, you can make Edge use IE mode for the sites you have that still require IE, without having to actually use IE.