How to Set Default Apps on Windows and MacOS
There are plenty of ways to customize Windows and macOS to better suit your preferences and tastes—from changing the wallpaper to controlling how programs launch —but one group of settings that may be less well known are those that control the default apps in your operating system. .
The easiest way to understand default apps is to double-click a file on your system: an image, a PDF, a video, or whatever you find useful. The program that launches is the default application for this file type, so you’ll likely see Microsoft Excel spring into action when you double-click an Excel spreadsheet, for example.
Your default web browser launches every time you click on a web link, your default email client launches every time you click on an email address, and so on and so forth. While you don’t necessarily want to change many of these default apps, it can be helpful if there are specific tools you want to use to handle certain files.
You may also find yourself in a situation where the program has set itself as the default without your permission, so suddenly your images open in perhaps Adobe Photoshop rather than Microsoft Paint . If you want to make changes to the default app associations or just view them, here’s how to do it.
Set default apps on Windows
Open Settings from the Start menu, then select Apps and Default Apps . A list of all the applications installed on your computer will appear, and you can select any of them to see all the file types they can open, so the media player will usually display common audio and video formats.
The application you select may or may not be set as the default application for all file types listed, and some file types may not have an application associated with them. Click on any file type to change its default value: the dialog box that appears lists first the programs that can handle that file type.
There is another way to do this: return to the default apps screen. Enter a file type in the box at the top, such as JPEG or PDF, to view the corresponding file types (as file extensions). Once you select a file type, you will see the current default application listed below (if there is one). Click the link directly below the search field to change the default app or select it for the first time.
If you want another way to set the default app for a file type, you can right-click any file in File Explorer, then select Open With and Choose another app . In the dialog box that appears, you can select the program on your system and then click “Only once ” (only open this file type once in this application) or “Always ” (always open this file type in this application).
Set default apps on macOS
On macOS, to set the default app for a file type, first search for that file type in Finder and select it with one click. Open the File menu, select Get Info , and you’ll see the current default application for that file type listed under the Open With heading (click the title to expand it if the application isn’t visible).
If you select another application from the Open With drop-down menu, that application will be used to open that file in the future when you double-click it. If you want to apply this to every file of that type on your system, click Change All , then Continue to confirm your choice.
There’s an alternative way to set default apps on a Mac: With the file selected in the Finder, choose File , Open With , and Other . You’ll see apps recommended for that file type, and if you check the “Always open with” box before selecting a program, that file type will be associated with your chosen app going forward (click Show Options if you don’t see the box).
For web browsing and email, there are a few other places worth checking out. In browsers, open the Apple menu, then System Preferences , then Desktop and Dock to find the Default Web Browser option. For email, open Apple Mail and select Mail , Preferences , and General to navigate to the Default Email Reader option.