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

I would uninstall & reinstall Chrome for all users.

 

dalchina - Thanks for the response but that wasn't really what I was looking for. I had already read through most of those responses and tried those fixes, unfortunately, to no avail. My issue was a little different.

 

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Thanks Steve for the reply. I was trying to hold off from the Un/Re-Install for fear that it would wipe out all users bookmarks and such. Went ahead with the suggested fix and fortunately, everything remained intact through the process and low and behold, Chrome now showed up in the list of available programs. Set it as the default for all of the .htms/urls/web-stuff and everything works like a champ. Thanks for the assistance to all!

 

the simple solution, which is using the control panel, not the buggy new settings panel, has been posted once, but for some reason there continues to be endless verbiage and 'solutions' such as 're-install win 10' , etc. etc.

so, again, the simple correct 'old-school' solution, so the choice will 'stick':

click control panel>programs>default programs>set default programs left window click on desired program then click on option to 'set this program as default' (or, if needed, 'choose defaults for this program')

that's it.

 

Except you may still find that by setting a browser as default http and https have not been set, and can be set using the Control Panel default associations for file types.

 

hopefully by then they will have fixed the bug in settings which won't save default choices

 

Sometimes certain old version software stops that. Or certainly did for several people.

 

Yes, this problem exists on every type we have at the house, so two laptops and one HP Pavilion. The Control Panel. System and Security Settings : Programs : Default Programs : Set your Default Programs : Select your default Program : scroll down to "Google Chrome" and then with mouse click on "Set this Program as Default" must be used with the new updated Windows 10. The pop up System Settings from "Make Chrome Default Web Browser" does NOT work.

 

In general you can't set the default associations from within programs. True from Win 8. VLC player even tells you that.

See
Default Apps - Choose in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
for the proper ways to do this.

If your defaults are not kept, check to see if you have an old version of winzip installed. This has been reported as causing this several times.

 

Was there any solution to this problem here? I'm having the same issues since a week now, don't want to reinstall windows yet.

What I've done so far:

sfc /scannow
recovered windows to an older state.
uninstalled chrome
reinstalled chrome
checked that I'm not logged in with a local/temp profile

Still same issues. Every time I start windows it asks me if I want Chrome to be the default browser and under default apps I cannot set any new default apps. Even if I select them it stays 'gray' - it does not take any change over??? Same for video player.






Btw, prior recovering windows from an older state. I'd have the problem that chrome would not stay logged into pages after every restart, also Lync would try to reinstall after every restart. I'm glad this is gone after the recovery -_-

 

A lot of people struggle with Chrome - I don't use it, although some things sneak up and package Chrome, making it hard to avoid installing.

Try
Solved Can't make Chrome default browser, only msEdge - Windows 10 Forums

Often worth searching the forum.

 

Hannah890, I have successfully set Leawo Blu-Ray player as my default over win10's "Movies & TV" default.
1.Settings
2.Type in "Control Panel"
3.Click "Programs"
4.Click "Default Programs"
5.Click "Associate a file type or protocol with a program", then select the file extension for which you wish to change an association
6.Scroll to bottom and click "More apps"
7.If your program choice is not listed, scroll to bottom and click "Look fo another app on this PC"
8.I had to browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Leawo\Blu-ray Player to highlight "Leawo Blu-ray Player.exe"
9.Now I can double-click .avi, divx, .mkv, .mov., and .mp4 files or right-click an .iso then "Open with" and watch it with the Leawo player. *Smile*cake
10.I chose VLC as my default audio file format player, even though Leawo can play them.

On step 5, you can first sort file extensions by clicking the top header "Current default". This made it quicker for me to see all the file types I wanted to channge that were associated to Windows 10 "Movies & TV" app.

 

Hello there... I know the fix for this issue.

So this is what the issue is, to be easy and clear.

When you go to Default Applications, There are many categories to choose default apps.

Default Browser, Default music player, ETC...

The problem is, you try to switch a default app, Example, switching from Edge browser to Chrome browser, The changes will not apply !

There is a simple way to fix this, with out reinstalling windows 10.

Travel to: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\User Accounts

When you see your account, you need to edit it. There will be an option that says: Log in with Microsoft Account instead.

Done, click on that link, log in to your hotmail/ outlook/ or any microsoft email you may have. Finish the process, and reboot your machine.

DONE !!! Problem fixed !

The reason that caused this to happen to me, was, I was using a Windows Account to log in to windows. Then I switched to a Local Account (I dont remember why I did that)... Then, I updated windows (I don't remember with KB update it was), then I reinstalled chrome, since mine was bugged, and I could never set it to default again.

I switched back to log in with Microsoft Account, and it fixed the problem.

I don't know if this is the only way to duplicate the problem, but I am 100% sure, this is what caused it on my machine.

I hope this can help some one because this issue can be very frustrating. RIGHT?

Good luck guys.

 

And a full year after this post (lol) this problem persists with no official resolution from MS. It happened to me a few days ago and as predictable as a clock it resulted from the back and forth MS account vs local account sign ins.

However BadWulf's simple and STILL effective work around continues to resolve it. Thank you again sir. Your steps should be stickied somewhere as clearly the issue still exists. It's funny how the cause has been clearly outlined, easily tested and reproduced and still not fixed lol. The wonderful world of MS

 

I have this exact problem. It started today and I have never used a MS account to log into this machine because it's forbidden by my company.

It started immediately following the install of today's Libre Office update. Something else that happened, is that my eclipse Neon.3 IDE stopped launching. I've uninstalled Google Chrome, eclipse and Libre Office. I've re-installed them and run fine, except that pesky "can't set chrome as default" problem.

Again, I've never logged into this machine using a windows account of any kind. I would suggest that the Local vs MS account is just another symptom of the problem that, perhaps, has the ability to overwrite the actual problem.