Does Google want to make it easier to select the Chrome browser as the default browser in Windows 10/11?

[German]The developers of the Google Chrome browser are discussing simplifying the mechanism for selecting the default browser on Windows. A simple mouse click on a button should be enough in the future, instead of chasing the user into the settings under Windows 10/11, as was the case until now. The Mozilla developers have already implemented this for some time.

There are such luxury problems that only a Windows 10/11 user has. On Windows 11 (and probably Windows 10), it is the case that the Google Chrome browser does have an option to select it as the default browser. The user is redirected to the Windows Settings app when selecting the Google option Set as Default (under Settings->Default Browser) and must select the default browser there.

I guess the Mozilla developers have managed the change of Firefox as default browser more elegantly – as I read here. They bypass the Microsoft GUI and offer the use as default browser via button in the settings page in the browser. That works quite reliably for me, too.

Discussion of Google Chromium developers

A user recently noticed a discussion by Chromium developers that he picked up on reddit.com in the thread Google is working on the option to set Chrome as the default browser directly from the browser Settings page.

There is a new commit in the Gerrit development branch that describes a feature in the Chrome browser to set the default browser directly in Windows 10.  

Add Ability to Set the Default Browser Directly in Win10

Make Chrome the default browser. This function works by going through the url protocols and file associations that are related to general browsing, e.g. http, https, .html etc., and directly setting the relevant registry entries for each.

According to the commit, Chrome should itself adjust the assignments of the URL protocol handlers and the file type links to register as the default browser. This would eliminate the detour via the Windows settings page. The reddit.com user does write in an update that he is not sure the code changes will bring a 1-click solution. Rather, the code changes could bring further improvements to the default browser setting without directly providing a "1-click solution" in the browser. Let's see how this issue develops. After all, Microsoft has a tendency to make it increasingly difficult for users to change browser settings on Windows 11 (and Windows 10) (see Windows 10/11-Updates blocks tools to redirect Edge protocol associations). (via)