Microsoft today said that it would make it easier for developers to offer to make their apps the default for compatible file types in Windows 11. It will also ensure that its own apps use this same common supported method for defaults.
“We want to ensure that people are in control of what gets pinned to their Desktop, their Start menu and their Taskbar as well as to be able to control their default applications such as their default browser through consistent, clear, and trustworthy Windows provided system dialogs and settings,” a new post to the Windows Experience Blog credited to Tali Roth and Aaron Grady reads. “Third-party applications running on Windows and Microsoft’s own apps and features will have access to methods for pinning to these key user experiences and access to directing users to change defaults.”
Windows has long had a Default apps interface, but the implementation in Windows 11 is functionally broken and thus controversial. In this system, it is impossible to make any (non-web browser) app the default for a wide range of compatible file types with one click, as was previously the case. And even worse, Windows 11 ignores your default web browser choice in several scenarios and launches Microsoft Edge instead.
Looking at the features that Microsoft has announced, I don’t see any changes to the Settings UI for making a particular app the default across multiple file types at once, as is the case with web browsers now. This type of change, where you might configure an app to be the default for all image types, for example, would be a meaningful upgrade to the existing system. (And would reverse a usability regression in Windows 11.)
Instead, it appears that apps will be able to direct users to the correct location in Settings where they can configure various file types to open in a particular app one at a time. This is, at best, a small nicety.
As for pinning, Windows 11 will one day include a public interface for developers that will let their apps create primary or secondary pins on the Taskbar, along with a confirmation for the user to approve. Again, that’s nice, but it’s easy to pin apps to the Taskbar already.
Given that Microsoft will “launch these new features first in a Windows Insider Dev Channel flight in the coming months,” I assume these features will arrive in Windows 11 version 23H2 at the earliest. And that they will not improve matters in the slightest.
“We have a responsibility to ensure user choices are respected,” the post notes, which is ridiculous: if Microsoft respected user choice, it would not launch Microsoft Edge when the user has configured a different browser as their default. The changes it has announced are minor improvements at best and don’t solve the serious issues with default apps in Windows 11.
