Windows 10 – Set default file association by GPO (Default browser to Chrome in my example)

Hi everyone

Today I will share a tip if you need to set the default file association for a bunch of computers by Group Policy.

In my example I want to make Chrome the default browser.

Someone could tell me, why I didnt used the Chrome Group Policy extension to set it by default ? I answer, because the Windows does not take it, as the file association for .htm is not changed by the Chrome GPO extension.

The first thing to do;

Change the default browser to Chrome there;

After the change we need to generate an XML’s file to know the association set;

dism /online /Export-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\apps.xml

The file content would look that way;

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<DefaultAssociations>
<Association Identifier=”.3gp2″ ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.3G2″ ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.adt” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.ADTS” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.adts” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.ADTS” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.fdf” ProgId=”FoxitPhantomPDF.FDFDoc” ApplicationName=”Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0″ />
<Association Identifier=”.htm” ProgId=”ChromeHTML” ApplicationName=”Google Chrome” />
<Association Identifier=”.html” ProgId=”ChromeHTML” ApplicationName=”Google Chrome” />
<Association Identifier=”.MP2″ ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.MP3″ ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.mpa” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.MPEG” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.MPE” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.MPEG” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.mpeg” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.MPEG” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.mpg” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.MPEG” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.mts” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.M2TS” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.pdf” ProgId=”FoxitPhantomPDF.Document” ApplicationName=”Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0″ />
<Association Identifier=”.ppdf” ProgId=”FoxitPhantomPDF.PPDF” ApplicationName=”Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0″ />
<Association Identifier=”.TS” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.TTS” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.TTS” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.TTS” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.WPL” ProgId=”WMP11.AssocFile.WPL” ApplicationName=”Windows Media Player” />
<Association Identifier=”.xdp” ProgId=”FoxitPhantomPDF.XDPDoc” ApplicationName=”Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0″ />
<Association Identifier=”.xfdf” ProgId=”FoxitPhantomPDF.XFDFDoc” ApplicationName=”Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0″ />
<Association Identifier=”http” ProgId=”ChromeHTML” ApplicationName=”Google Chrome” />
<Association Identifier=”https” ProgId=”ChromeHTML” ApplicationName=”Google Chrome” />
</DefaultAssociations>

After that we need to create our GPO;

It’s in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer\Set a default associations configuration file setting

As you can see I put my file inside NETLOGON, as all computer usualy have access there.

 

After that your default file association should work good ! 🙂

 

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