Hi Michael,

Setting them using an xml file is one solution, and it is useful including the 
process.  Thank you.

However, as it’s an option available during manual install, I’d have thought it 
would be an easy option to configure during the silent install.  I’m not sure 
how the manual installer does it (whether it mimics the manual key and mouse 
clicks or uses a more efficient method).  While it seems to have been an option 
in the older installers, those solutions don’t seem to work anymore.  I’d hoped 
I was missing something, but it seems from the responses there isn’t an easy 
way of doing it.

Regards

Will

Will Spratt
IT Science Support Specialist
Tel:         01904 46 2631

From: Enterprise [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael 
Haase
Sent: 05 January 2017 12:16
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Mozilla Enterprise] Setting Firefox as default using a cmd line

William,

Windows 10 (and as far as I know this is also true for Windows 8) does not 
allow to set default application simply by RegKeys (UserChoice) as it needs an 
additional checksum value. You also cannot simply set a default application and 
then copy the RegKeys to another machine, it does not even work for other users 
on the same machine. The checksum includes the machine name, user name and the 
application. Microsoft wants to prevent malware to change those settings, I 
assume. And they do want that the users change defaults on their own, which is 
bad for administrators.

But Windows 10 has a new GPO for setting default file associations. You set 
them on one machine, export it to an xml file, edit it manually if needed (you 
may remove the lines for applications that you do not want to change as those 
are already default) and then give the path to the xml file in the GPO. The xml 
file may be on a network share (e.g. NETLOGON), or copied by SCCM during 
install to the machine (local C: path). You need cumulative Windows update from 
December in order to correctly work at the very first logon of a new user 
(before it only worked on second logon and later, or restart of explorer.exe 
process). This is tested with Windows 10 1607 LTSB. This way, I set old Windows 
Picture Viewer as default app for several picture file types, change the 
default browser from Edge to IE and set our pdf application as default for pdf.

I do not know what some programs do that offer to register themselve as default 
application. Do they send key/mouse commands to simulate manual user 
interactions (so fast that you do not realize it), or is there another way (I 
did no way by my own internet research)?

Regards,
Michael

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