Despite using Chrome, Firefox, or another third-party browser in Windows 10 or 11, you may run into instances where the default web browser changes (or appears to change) without your permission. There are several reasons for this.
Microsoft relies on pushy tactics that force you to use Microsoft Edge in various parts of the operating system. Additionally, broken configurations, browser hijackers, and conflicting settings can adversely impact your default program preferences.
Read on to learn what you can do to stop your default browser from changing on a PC running Windows 10 or Windows 11.
It’s best to kick things off by double-checking the default browser settings on your PC. For example, updating the operating system could revert your default application preferences, and there’s nothing you can do about it except reconfigure them again.
5. Type explorer.exe into the “Create new task” pop-up, check the box next to Create this task with administrative privileges, and select OK.
Despite having a different browser set up as the default, Windows 10/11 will forcibly load Microsoft Edge if you interact with native features and apps such as the News and Weather widget and Your Phone. The only way to circumvent that requires using an open-source helper application called EdgeDeflector. However, at the time of writing, it only works on Windows 10.
Scanning your computer for malware can help remove browser hijackers and other malicious software that modify your computer’s default browser settings. Instead of using Windows Security, we recommend using a third-party dedicated malware remover or antivirus utility. Here’s the free version of Malwarebytes in action.
Using Chrome, you can also scan for harmful software using a built-in clean-up tool. The feature is not present in the macOS version of Chrome.
If the issue persists, try updating your preferred browser and re-configure your default app preferences. Here’s how to update the two most popular third-party browsers for Windows 10 and 11.
Google Chrome: Open the Chrome menu and select Help > About Google Chrome. You can also update other Chromium-based browsers such as Opera and Brave the same way.
Broken or corrupt Chrome or Firefox settings can also prevent it from remaining as the default Windows browser. Try reverting the browser to factory defaults and check if that helps. But before you do that, make sure to sync your browsing data to your Google Account or Firefox Account.
Dilum Senevirathne is a freelance tech writer and blogger with three years of experience writing for online technology publications. He specializes in topics related to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Google web apps. When he isn't hammering away at his Magic Keyboard, you can catch him binge-watching productivity hacks on YouTube. Read Dilum's Full Bio
Did you enjoy this tip? If so, check out our YouTube channel from our sister site Online Tech Tips. We cover Windows, Mac, software and apps, and have a bunch of troubleshooting tips and how-to videos. Click the button below to subscribe!A relationship can be set to be unidirectional – its default behavior – or bidirectional. In a unidirectional relationship the filter context is propagated from the one-side to the many-side, but not the other way around. In other words, in the following diagram a filter on Customer automatically filters Sales, whereas a filter on Sales propagates neither to Product nor to Customer or Date.
This behavior works well in most scenarios. Indeed, a report typically slices sales amount by customer or product attributes. It is quite uncommon to filter customers, or products, based on sales.
Look at the following report where there are two slicers – one for the customer name and one for the product color, with a matrix providing sales details:
The report works well; it shows Amanda’s purchases. Nevertheless, the color slicer is not filtering the few colors purchased by Amanda. One can easily see which colors she bought by adding the color to the report, yet the slicer does not provide easy feedback to the user. The reason is that the filter on Customer reaches Sales. Therefore, it only filters the sales of the selected customer. But the filter does not automatically flow from Sales to Product, because the relationship between Product and Sales is set as a default unidirectional relationship.
There is an easy solution to the problem: set the relationship between Product and Sales as a bidirectional relationship. By doing that, the filter automatically propagates from Sales to Product, so that the slicer will only show the products (hence, the colors) of the selected customer. The result is quite nice:
Several Power BI users rely on bidirectional filters for the purpose of syncing slicers. The model with unidirectional filters was simple and sound. The update of the relationship looked straightforward and convenient. Unfortunately, by enabling a simple bidirectional filter, the data model has now been transformed into a data monster, whose behavior is complex enough to be unpredictable. This is a strong statement, and the remainder of the article is devoted to that explanation.
First, let us look at the resulting model. It is not all that different from the original model. The only (tiny, not very noticeable) difference is the presence of the double arrow on the relationship between Sales and Product.
The presence of that bidirectional cross-filter is going to quickly create our worst nightmare, because it introduces ambiguity in the model. What is ambiguity? A model is ambiguous when there are multiple paths between tables. In an ambiguous model, the engine has multiple options when transferring a filter from one table to another. Therefore, it either finds a preferred way to transfer the filter, or it raises an error. In this scenario, no error was raised; therefore, either the model is not ambiguous (small spoiler: IT IS AMBIGUOUS), or the engine found a preferred way to transfer the filter.
Now, before moving on with the article, look at the model and check where the ambiguity is. You need to find two tables that are linked through different paths, following the arrows of the cross-filter. Hey, don’t cheat, stop reading and find these paths!
We created an ambiguous model, and yet the engine has not complained about it. The reason is that by analyzing the two paths, the engine has decided that one path is to be preferred against the other. The choice seems straightforward in this case: because one of the two relationships (number 1) is direct, it is the preferred path. Hence, when a filter needs to be moved from Date to Purchases, the engine uses the shortest path and avoids the longer one.
This scenario is artificially simple: there are two paths, one of which is clearly the best. It is utterly simple to create more complex scenarios where that choice is no longer obvious. Moreover, the algorithm used by the engine to choose the preferred path is not that trivial. Indeed, it does not just choose the shortest path. It chooses the shortest path where the first selecting relationship is closest to the filter. If this last sentence sounds confusing, that is by design. The algorithm is extremely complex to analyze and understand for a human. On average, the algorithm almost always picks the path that a human would have chosen, but in order to be a generic algorithm its description is much more complex. I will not be expanding on this any further.
Although one path is preferred over the other, there are still two possible paths to propagate the filter from Date to Purchases. In some scenarios, both paths can be travelled in a single expression, leading to ridiculous results. Let us elaborate on this.
We know that a filter moves from Date to Purchases by following the most direct relationship. The following figure shows the full model, with colored and numbered paths.
The third question is a bit more of a challenge. Sales is filtered by both Date and Customer. Date uses the yellow path (number 3), Customer uses the blue path (number 2), and both filter Sales. Then Sales reaches Purchases through the blue path (number 2). But at the same time, Date reaches Purchases through the orange path (number 1), and we already know that path number 1 is the preferred path. Therefore, which path does Date use to reach Purchases, when there is also a filter on Customer? I know, the scenario starts to be confusing. After all, we know the model is ambiguous. So the last question is just the logical conclusion of this reasoning: the more filters are present, the more ambiguity becomes an issue.
As I said, the algorithm that disambiguates the model is sophisticated. It finds its way through the maze of relationships even though the way it finds might not be the most intuitive one. The correct answer on this specific model is the following:
If Date and Customer are filtered, both filters are used against Sales. Then Sales filters Product which in turn filters Purchases. The yellow (3) relationship between Date and Sales is used to filter Sales, but then Date also filters Purchases through the most direct relationship. Therefore, both paths are used when Customer is filtered.
The thing is that – depending
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