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Set Default Browser To Microsoft Edge Using PowerShell

This article will cover the steps to set the Microsoft EDGE as Default Browser using PowerShell if the current browser is Internet Explorer.

Need for the change

In 2021, Microsoft stops support for Internet Explorer for most Azure and Office 365 applications, forcing all the windows customers to use other Browsers or Microsoft EDGE as the Default browser to get web application support.

Microsoft also provided the documentation to set Microsoft EDGE as default using GPO by configuring DefaultAssociationsConfiguration. Here is the link to change the default browser for all users.

I thought of a solution that only changes the default browser if the current default is Internet Explorer, not changing anything for the user with Chrome or Firefox. I use simple PowerShell If condition to achieve the solution.

It's a simple three-step process.

  • First, create the default associations configuration file as per the Microsoft document and store that to Network Share with access to all users.
  • Second, use the PowerShell command to capture the current default browser.
  • Third, use the if condition in PowerShell to match & create the registry key for DefaultAssociationsConfiguration.

I use the Microsoft document from the link to create an XML file that sets Microsoft Edge as the default application for specific protocols.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DefaultAssociations> 
  <Association ApplicationName="Microsoft Edge" ProgId="MSEdgeHTM" Identifier=".html"/>
  <Association ApplicationName="Microsoft Edge" ProgId="MSEdgeHTM" Identifier=".htm"/>
  <Association ApplicationName="Microsoft Edge" ProgId="MSEdgeHTM" Identifier="http"/>
  <Association ApplicationName="Microsoft Edge" ProgId="MSEdgeHTM" Identifier="https"/>  
</DefaultAssociations>

Store the XML to Network Share e.g. \\NetworkShare\EDGE\defaultapplication.XML

The next step is to capture the default browser details from the system using PowerShell.

To do that, we will check the registry value of ProgId at HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice.

$Path = (Get-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice -Name ProgId).ProgId
$Path

The table shows the meaning of each value,

Value Data Browser
IE.HTTP Internet Explorer
ChromeHTML Chrome
MSEdgeHTM EDGE
FirefoxHTML-308046B0AF4A39CB Firefox

The next step is to create registry value DefaultAssociationsConfiguration at HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System and set the value data to the XML file on Network Share (\\NetworkShare\EDGE\defaultapplication.XML) using PowerShell.

$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System'
$Name = "DefaultAssociationsConfiguration"
$value = '\\NetworkShare\EDGE\defaultapplication.XML'

New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name $name -Value $value -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null

Now merge both the PowerShell command and use the IF condition to match the value to IE.HTTP. This way, the script will only create the Registry value if the condition match else it exits the script.

$Path = (Get-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice -Name ProgId).ProgId
$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System'
$Name = "DefaultAssociationsConfiguration"
$value = '\\NetworkShare\EDGE\defaultapplication.XML'
$result = "IE.HTTP"
IF($Path - eq $result) {
    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name $name -Value $value -PropertyType String -Force | Out -Null
}
ELSE {
    Exit
}

At the next reboot, the system will update Microsoft EDGE as a default browser.

This small PowerShell script will allow the System admins to change the default browser from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge without bothering Chrome and Firefox users.

Feel free to change the $result value in the command to use this script with any browser.

The administrator can use this script as a Logon script using GPO or Task Sequence in SCCM to push this configuration.

Conclusion

We have used the Basic PowerShell command to verify the default browser and change to Microsoft EDGE if the current default is Internet Explorer.

​Thank you for reading


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