Windows 10 Default App Protocols with Edge and Internet Explorer 11

Modern Apps in Windows 10 present many organizations with new opportunities and challenges. While I like the new Edge browser and I see a lot of potential for it in the future, the fact is not everything works with it, and many organizations just aren’t ready to support a new default browser.  At the same time, gone are the days when system admins can set one registry key to control the default browser.  However, there is a new toolset that will allow you to set more than just your browser, so you don’t have to keep on hunting down registry keys. 

The steps below will cover how to first capture default application settings, then apply them when capturing an image on a reference system, or in line for a Configuration Manager task sequence.

• Log in as a local admin on a Windows 10 system that has your default set of applications installed.  
• Open Settings and select System.

Select Default Apps from the bottom of the list.

Set the default applications appropriately for your organization, then click on the “Choose default apps by protocol” link at the bottom of the page.

Set this list appropriately for your organization.  Even if you have set Internet Explorer on the previous screen, there will be additional references to Edge here.  This will also give you a nice view of what modern apps are utilized by default, and what to focus on when testing Windows 10.

• Open an elevated command prompt and use DISM to capture the settings with following command.
  • DISM /Online /Export-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\Temp\DefaultApp

• Use the following command to import the settings on the system you use to capture your reference image, or in a Configuration Manager task sequence.
  • DISM /Online /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\Temp\DefaultApps.XML

• If you have already captured your reference image, the following commands can be used to apply the settings directly to the WIM.  However, if the applications referenced in your settings are not in the WIM or installed before a user logs in, the affected settings will effectively be empty.
  • DISM /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\Temp\Win10Entx64.wim /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\Temp\Offline
  • DISM /Image:C:\Temp\Offline /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\Temp\DefaultApps.XML
  • DISM /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\Temp\Offline /commit

More information on importing and exporting Default App Associations can be found on Technet.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825038.aspx