You’re now ready to use Windows 10! In this chapter, we’ll learn how to install and uninstall an app, and how to set default apps for different files. Let’s get going!
View Your Apps
Installing and using apps is the whole point of having a computer!
Let's see where to find apps in Windows 10.
List the apps installed on your computer
To see the applications installed on your computer:
Click on the Start menu.
Go to Settings.
Go to Apps (as you may have guessed!).
Here you will see a list of the apps installed on your computer.
If you select the second menu on the left, you can see the settings for default apps.
Change the default browser
Windows 10 uses Edge, the new Microsoft browser, which comes installed with the operating system. This might not necessarily be the browser you want for your company’s users. In that case, you can install a new browser and set it as your default browser.
The downloaded file should be called “Firefox_Installer.exe”. “Firefox Installer” is the name of the file and “exe” is the file extension. This extension, which means “executable”, shows you that the file needs to be executed – in other words, it contains a program, not just data such as an image or a text file.
When you double-click on an executable file, Windows will launch the program it contains.
In this case, “Firefox_Installer.exe” is a program that installs Firefox on our computer.
Once Firefox is installed, you can change your default browser to Firefox by going into:
Settings
Apps
Default Apps
In the “Web Browser” section, click on the Edge logo and choose Mozilla Firefox:
Now each time you open a web link, from your emails, for example, Firefox is the browser that will be used.
Take a look at this video to see how I use Windows 10 to change the default browser on my PC:
Go behind the scenes of Windows
What you see here is simply Windows’s way of making it easier for you to navigate between programs, but as you troubleshoot any problems you may need to go a little further.
To see where Firefox is really located, go to:
C:\Program Files for 64-bit computers, or
C:\Program Files (x86) for 32-bit computers
This is where Firefox is installed on Windows. You can see the complete list of everything installed as part of the Firefox installation in one of these directories
Now you’re familiar with “exe” extensions and you’ve seen what Windows does with them. You don’t need to worry about setting a default app for these extensions, Windows Installer takes care of everything. However, you probably want to know how to choose a specific app for certain files, such as PDFs.
Choose apps by file extension
Windows 10 will automatically open PDFs with its browser, Edge. We’re now going to see how to choose a different application and set it as the default app for PDF files.
Once installed, click on “Choose default apps by file type”.
This page may take some time to load, scroll down until you find the “.pdf” extension.
When you do so you’ll see that Windows has selected Edge for you.
Click to change it and choose Foxit Reader.
Now, try to open a PDF file. You’ll see that it will open with Foxit Reader.
Follow the video below to watch me update the default application for PDF files in Windows 10:
Remove Software
Of course, from time to time you’ll need to remove some software. It couldn’t be easier – all you have to do is:
Go back to “Apps & features”:
Find the app you want to delete (Candy Crush Saga for example):
Then click “Uninstall”.
I told you it was easy!
Sometimes you might encounter difficulties during the uninstall operation. It could be that the software’s uninstall script contains an error, or certain files are corrupted. In this case, you can use a special tool like Revo Uninstaller.
Your Turn!
🎯 Today's mission at CleanFuture: The following email from your CleanFuture line manager has arrived in your inbox this morning:
Hi,
The latest version of Foxit seems to have a bug and is crashing on all of our office computers. Do you mind taking a look and fixing this for everyone?
Thanks
This is quite a big deal - nobody in the office can open PDF files!
You decide to change the default app for PDF files to Adobe Reader instead.
⚙️ The actions you need to take:
Uninstall Foxit Reader.
Download Adobe Reader.
Set the default app for PDF files to Adobe Reader to rectify the issue.
✅ Double-check your work: You’ll know when you have succeeded when you open a file with a .pdf file extension and it automatically opens in Adobe Reader.
Let’s Recap!
To view a list of the apps on your computer:
Start > Settings > Apps
To uninstall apps:
Start > Settings > Apps
Choose the app to uninstall
Click on it, then on “Uninstall”
You can set default apps by file type or extension in:
Start > Settings > Apps > Default apps
So now you’ve learned how to view your computer’s apps, uninstall them, set default apps for different file extensions, and even locate them on your PC. In the next chapter, we’ll look at a new platform that you will use often in your IT career: Windows Store for Business.
