Google will soon make it easier to set Chrome as the default browser in Windows

Google is working on an easier way to set Chrome as the default browser in modern Windows versions. As spotted by Leopeva64-2 on Reddit, a commit on Chromium Gerrit describes a new control that will let Chrome users set the browser as the default one with a single click.

The current version of Chrome allows changing the default browser within its settings, but the implementation requires switching to the Windows Settings app. On the other hand, Firefox has a much more convenient single-click solution Mozilla introduced in 2021. The same implementation will soon make it to Chrome.

Here is how Google describes the code change on Chromium Gerrit:

Make Chrome the default browser. This function works by going through the url protocols and file associations that are related to general browsing, e.g. http, https, .html etc., and directly setting the relevant registry entries for each.

There is no information on when the updated behavior will be available, but you can expect it to appear in preview channels for testing ahead of public release.

Changing the default browser was a big controversy after Microsoft made it incredibly difficult to switch from Edge to anything else in Windows 11. Instead of providing a single-click option, the company forced users to change more than ten file associations just to make Windows 11 open links in Chrome or any other browser. After a significant backlash, Microsoft gave in and fixed the problem. Parts of Windows 10 and 11 are still tied to Edge, but you can change that with the MSEdgeRedirect tool.

Google will soon make it easier to set Chrome as the default browser in Windows