Windows 10: Can't choose default software / choices won't get saved

I've had this problem a few days where I simply can't set a default browser (or any other default software from the settings) anymore. It let's me to go to the list and choose, say, Google Chrome, but then doesn't save my choice. I can revert to Microsoft's default settings in general, when the choice will stay as Edge. This bugs me the most when clicking on URL links in other software, they open up randomly in both Chrome (which I actively use) and Edge (which is the current default).

I have tried to set Chrome as the default browser from its own settings, too, but to no avail. Would also very much want to use VLC Player as the default for videos, but Win10 is being a pain in the butt and doesn't let me do it.


Wondering if anyone else has experienced the same? Trying to google for similar cases was pretty much impossible, at least for me.
If it's of any help, I'm sporting a Lenovo Y50-70 laptop with Intel Cote i7-4710HQ.

:)

 

Question about “Setting==》Storage”

Files are downloaded by your web browser, and web browsers allow you to choose where downloaded files will be saved. Each browser does this a little differently, but basically you are able to choose a default folder or be asked each time where you would
like to save the downloaded file. People typically choose the Download folder or their desktop (which is also a folder in Windows) as a default location.

The choices you make in Settings for default save locations aren't referring to downloaded files. That tells Windows where different types of files should be saved by default, i.e., if you don't specify a location. For example: Let's say you like to work
with photo editing software. If you don't specify where to save edited photos, Windows will save them to the default location you specify in Settings.

Of course, even if you choose the Music folder as the default save location for music files, for example, nothing is stopping you from storing music files any place you like.

The choices you make in Settings are important for another reason: Let's suppose you need to reset Windows and want to keep all your own files (documents, pictures, etc.) or let's suppose you want to upgrade to a newer version of Windows. In both cases,
Windows will leave the files stored in your default locations untouched, so they'll still be there when Windows is done resetting or upgrading. If you store files anywhere else - for example: on the desktop or the Public folders - those files may get erased
during the reset/upgrade process.

(For the record: Microsoft has said that Windows 10 will be the last version. There won't be a Windows 11. We'll see about that.)

 

can not change access point...

All of a sudden, I can't change my access point in the internet browser anymore. Earlyer I could choose between 3g (phone company) or wireless, but now can't even access the choice in the menu. Nothing happens when I push "change".... I have put in the
last software version and rolled back to default settings.

 

Hi, just search the forum (use search box above) for (e.g.)
default programs reset
file associations not saved

There are many threads on the topic which has been addressed many times. Do please search and read some.

In general it's not a problem I've had, but is a problem in Win 10 not seen in previous versions in this way.

E.g.
Default apps being reset by Windows - Windows 10 Forums
https://www.tenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/40373-last-update-caused-all-custom-file-associations-reset-defaults.html

Clues:
1. From Win 8 on you can't set defaults from within a program. That is, you can try, but they aren't saved. Only one or two progs give a warning this is not the way to do it.
2. A recent update was reported and acknowledged by MS to cause defaults not to be saved for some users (not all).
3. Recently I found that I got notifications in safe mode that 3 default choices (image files) were causing a conflict and the defaults were reset to MS's choice.
4. Users updating back in November to 10586 found their default choices reset.
5. People with old versions of a couple of desktop programs find this happening e.g. Winzip

 

RE : set Chrome as default browser
I am sorry, but you did not clearly describe the method you used.
At the risk of repetitious, did you do it this way ?.......................
Start button > Settings > System > left side, Default apps > right side, scroll down to Web Browser > it might say Microsoft Edge > click it > a popup box will show you a list to choose from > select Google Chrome.
See if this setting will stick.

RE : VLC as default videos player
Right click at Start > Control Panel > top right, click View by > select either large or small > select AutoPlay >check the box " Choose what to do with each type of media " > at Videos , click the pointer and choose VLC media player > click Save when done.

 

VLC player is almost the only program I've seen that tells you what to do and that you can't set it as default from within VLC.





Settings, System, Default Apps - that's one way.
Another is Windows key + X, Control Panel, Default Programs
Another is Rt click a file, Open with, and make sure you scroll down and click set as default.

Full story:
Default Apps - Choose in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Sorry if this same question has been asked many times already, I seriously didn't find any threads about it *Sad I was probably not searching with the right keywords, but thanks for providing me with some now! Apologies. my OS is in Finnish so sometimes finding the right words and terms in English is a bit of a challenge.

I've done exactly this, but it doesn't stick. Doesn't let me choose any of the browsers.

 

Right click at the Start button > select Control Panel > top right, click View by > select either large or small > select Default Programs > select Set your default programs > wait for it to load > left side, find Google Chrome > click it > right side, click Set this program as default <bottom right, click OK when done.

 

The problem is that the settings "don't stick". *sarc I'm having the same issue. We can get to the settings page just fine.

 

Do you have an old version of winzip installed?

And note:
MS admits bug in KB3135173 resetting associations
See this, referring to KB3135173,
Windows 10 Forced Update Resets Default Apps To Microsoft Products - Slashdot

Updategate: Microsoft 'aware' of problem causing app defaults to reset- The Inquirer

- from which came the suggested registry modification.
Fix for "An App Default was Reset" Windows 10 Resetting File Associations (Registry Fixes) - The Winhelponline Blog

However, it would be better (I think) to uninstall the update, and hide it (see the Tutorial section)

 

I can confirm this is happening. I've spent a good 20-30 hours or so doing multiple tests on multiple machines (just happened to be fresh building 2 machines and had a 3rd spare this past weekend). I've run into the exact same behavior you describe -- in the "Default Applications" dialog, you can click on something, get the choices, and no matter what you click it doesn't change or save. The only work-around I've found is if you use right click -> open with on specific file types, you can select 'always open with' and that'll save. Trying to make this change via any Win10 options dialog results in nothing sticking.

The only 'cure' for it that I've discovered is to fully reinstall Windows 10, or use a restore point to go back before it occurred and avoid triggering it again (more on that in a moment...).

I believe this is caused by some recent-ish cumulative update or bugfix update, but I am unable to discern which one. I am using the latest "create installation media" version of Win10, which includes most of the recent updates, but not all.

I've been able to trigger it 100% of the time by doing the following:

• Freshly installing windows, letting it fully patch to current (I have not attempted to reproduce by going through each of the few patches one by one manually... too much time already lost)
• Setting windows up with a local account
• Logging in to any microsoft account authorized application while maintaining local machine login. Tested using both the xbox application and the windows store application.
• Reboot.

After authorizing into any microsoft account application while remaining on your local account, default application settings will fail to save. Something happens in the registry at that point (presumably) that causes it to silently fail forever and exhibit other odd behaviors now and again.

Further testing showed that if you start with a local account post fresh install, and then convert to a full microsoft account log-on, you are completely ok, so long as you don't revert back to local account sign-on.

So my choices in this matter seem to be:
a) Use a local windows account, and never, ever engage with any microsoft account authorized software. This includes the default xbox app, and would also preclude me from ever downloading anything from the windows store.
b) Just give in and link my microsoft account for windows login and never, ever unlink it.

As best as I can tell, if you're already suffering from this, your only option is to either reinstall windows or use a system restore to roll back to before it was happening (this worked for me in testing, allowed me to test a ton of variations of actions). After which, I'm pretty sure you need to make one of the two choices above.

Caveat: I'm not a professional, and I've only been fighting this for a couple dozen hours. I could potentially be missing something, so there's that. But I wanted this out there on the internet somewhere just so the handful of people I've seen talking about this issue don't think they're alone and/or crazy, and that maybe this can get someone pointed in the right direction. It could be that some manual registry fiddling could resolve this, which would be fantastic, but I'm not clever enough to deduce that sadly. I'd love to somehow get this to someone on the windows engineering team but I have no idea how to make that happen.

The whole thing just feels like a dumb bug-testing oversight because of the way local accounts were sort of re-added as a bolt-on from win8 to win10 and are fairly obviously depreciated due to the way microsoft wants to get everybody under a single ID. Which is fine and all, I'm not really against that, but it sure feels like some stuff is getting lost in the transition. This problem seems wholly unrelated to the prior 'resetting default applications' fiasco from a few months ago, which makes searching for info on it even more difficult, as it is more recent and less wide-spread for whatever reason.

Edit: One caveat to the workaround mentioned at the beginning (open with -> always), is that some things can't be set that way. For example, any application that lets you click URLs but just uses the windows default setting might get confused. You can associate htm and html files by just making one and doing the open with trick, but if you're clicking an https: link then it seems like you're out of luck. Could never find a tricksy workaround for that one.

 

.......................The only 'cure' for it that I've discovered is to fully reinstall Windows 10, or use a restore point to go back before it occurred and avoid triggering it again (more on that in a moment...)..........................

Yes. That usually ends up to be the real cure.

 

I did some more testing upon getting back home, can clarify some things further. Here's the gist, for affected people:

If you use a local account to log in to Windows, and for any reason you authenticate into some OS-tied application with your MSA (xbox app, windows store app, and such), your "Default apps" settings will no longer be able to be changed.

If you use a local account to log in to Windows, change to using your MSA to log in (even after doing the above), suddenly your "Default apps" settings will behave as they should.

If you revert from using MSA to log in and go back to your local account, they will once again be unable to be changed. But if you swap back to MSA login again, the "Default apps" settings will behave as they should for the duration that you continue to log in with your MSA.

I've bounced back and forth multiple times rebooting here and there testing various things. Tried changing my sync settings to see if maybe that was causing it, still have no idea of the underlying mechanics, but those are the events.

So I guess another "solution" is to swap your local login to an MSA one, make the changes you need, then un-link it once you're done. While tedious, it's a lot less drastic than having to do a major system restore or a reinstall. Can just bounce on, make your defaults changes, and bounce back out. Most people probably aren't changing those all the time anyway.

Given that this is dealing with settings being 'locked' in a sense, I'm kind of getting the feeling that this is a new bug introduced by the patch that solved the bug where Windows 10 was forcibly resetting users' defaults repeatedly. Just a guess though.

Anyway, go forth with this limited resolution. I do hope it works out for the other people who have experienced it in this thread, and maybe any other random folks that hit this via google can get something out of it. Fingers crossed it gets fixed for real in the next major update.

 

Thank you all this was driving me up the wall. A work around I found that sticks is to use the "set default by App" approach.

++++
1. Open "Settings"
2. Choose "System"
3. Select "Default apps"
4. Select "Set default by app" at the bottom
5. Select "Google Chrome"
6. Select "Choose defaults for this program"
7. Click "Select All"
8. Then "Save" The computer will indicate it is saving for about 2-4 seconds.
9. Click "Ok" and close out any windows associated with this process and your done.

 

Thank you, I faced that inability to change the default programs through the Parameters window (the choice was just ignored whenever I clicked on the name of the program I wanted to set), but it did changed those default programs when I used the way you explained (and it updated instantly my choices in the Parameters window)!