Topic: Windows 10 refuses to remember that Opera is my default browser

[Quemaqua]

This is driving me fucking insane, and after hours of searching, I have found exactly zero threads talking about this problem.

Basically no matter what I do, all links in any program open in Microsoft Edge. Even though Opera is listed as my default browser EVERYWHERE, any program where I click a link (such as a Twitter client, for instance) will load it in Edge. Every time. Opera is set to default in 2 or 3 different menus, and of course within itself, where it acknowledges itself as the default, but Edge is always what loads any links from outside of Opera. I've done everything I can think to do, including reinstalling Opera.

I'm about to pull my fucking hair out. Not because it's even the end of the world, I guess, but just because I'm really angry with how much I've had to do to get Windows 10 into a non-toxic state. Windows 7 was a lot easier to deal with. This shit is making me seriously regret making the decision to upgrade.

Does anybody here have even the least idea what I might be able to do? My only remaining clue is that if you go to Default Programs > Set Default Programs and click on Edge, two things remain checked under "protocols" that cannot be unchecked: URL:microsoft-edge and URL:read. My assumption is that these are the system-level culprits keeping things from opening in Opera, but I've only found one thread that even mentions those values, and nothing that talks about a way to change them.

I want to just get rid of Edge completely, but am afraid that it will break something. It can't be uninstalled, but there are various workarounds ... it just seems that Windows 10 relies on it for some stuff and it would be potentially bad to remove it.

[Cobra951]

I take it you've tried stuff like this?  Apparently you can set defaults by app?  (See Step 2.)  I'm flying blind here.  On the off chance you missed something in your searches, try my search string in Google:

windows 10 make opera default browser for everything

See if anything there helps.  Good luck.

Edit:  This page talks in general about setting default apps, and default apps for file types.

[scottws]

Sorry, Que, I don't use Windows 10 just yet.  My work PC is 8.1 and my home computer is Mac OS X.  I let Jennie keep the old Windows desktop.

[Quemaqua]

Oh yeah, tried all that. That's what I'm saying doesn't work (but thanks for your help in looking, I appreciate the effort). It's reasonably simple to set your default apps in multiple ways on Windows 10, it just apparently doesn't actually work a lot of the time.

I've determined that it's not system-wide now. There are a few programs that will load things in Opera, and a few that insist on doing it in Edge. I've seen that Outlook has this problem and most of the threads I've found are specific to Outlook, but the fixes are also specific to Outlook.

At this point I'm basically just not clicking links but copying everything out. It's annoying, but it's all I can do.

In case you haven't noticed, I really do not like Windows 10. The interface is fine, and it seems reasonably speedy, but of course I'm on a brand new Core i7 PC with 16 GB of RAM and an SSD, so of course it's going to be. But this shit is making me real mad. I uninstalled all the pack-in software last night, which involved me doing commands in powershell by command prompt, and even doing some registry stuff just to get rid of their useless new photo viewer and get the old version of Windows Photo Viewer back (which is there, just completely disabled, and is a DLL, not an EXE?). I also deep-sixed OneDrive successfully using both some counterintuitive workaround stuff and a registry edit to get the fucking icon off my Explorer.

What a nightmare.

[MysterD]

I actually just upgraded my crummy laptop (from Win 8.1) to Win 10 last night b/c of all them killer music, movies, and game deals on that Win 10 Store.
It had no problem w/ keeping my Avant as the main browser - the upgrade did pretty much everything for me and I disabled as much of the W10 telemetry crap via Piracy tab.

@Que
Is your problem an issue common for those w/ basically just starting w/ Win 10 as an OS on a new rig?

[Quemaqua]

It seems more problematic for people upgrading, but I've read a bunch of different stories.

You disabled the telemetry crap via what now? I need a more permanent solution for a variety of things, as Windows 10 seems to be real keen on reinstalling or reactivating shit I've disabled or even removed via registry and shit.

[scottws]

You can't disable the telemetry in Windows 10 unless you have the Enterprise version.