As a kid in the 1960s, I remember many happy hours spent huddled in front of a big black-and-white TV set on cold winter afternoons, watching reruns of The Outer Limits. "We will control the horizontal; we will control the vertical," intoned the ominous voice-over during the opening credits. The effect was thrilling, and creepy.

Is it just me, or does using a Web browser--or even installing a different Web browser--sometimes feel just as creepy as watching that old TV show, as if powers from somewhere in the outer limits of the Internet were controlling your PC? Well, it doesn't have to be that way. Whether you use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or a combination of the four, you can remain firmly in charge of determining which browser Windows opens by default, and you can switch quickly to a different one as your needs dictate. (For more about browser alternatives, see last October's News and Trends story "Is It Time to Ditch IE?")

Choose Your Default

Windows comes with Internet Explorer set as the default Web browser. (No surprise there.) Whenever you click a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) link, whether it's in a document, an e-mail message, or an instant message, Windows uses IE by default to load and display the linked Web page.

For security or for any number of other reasons, you may decide to install a different browser and make it the default. Depending on your system's configuration, however, installing a new browser may not automatically set it as the default. You can change your default browser in Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) to the latest version--as we went to press--of any of the leading alternative browsers by following these steps:

Firefox 1.0 Preview Release: If you want to make this new browser your default, choose Tools, Options, select the General icon in the left panel, click the Check Now button in the Default Browser section, and choose Yes when Firefox asks whether you would like to make it the default browser (see FIGURE 1). If you wish to be alerted anytime another browser attempts to set itself as the default, be sure to select Firefox should check to see if it is the default browser when starting, and click OK.

Internet Explorer 6: Choose Tools, Internet Options, select the Programs tab, click Reset Web Settings, uncheck Also reset my home page in the next dialog box (unless you want it to be someone else's choice), and click Yes. If you would like to set Internet Explorer to prompt you when another program has taken over as the default browser, check Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser at the bottom of the dialog box. Click OK.

Mozilla 1.7.3: Choose Edit, Preferences, select Navigator in the left panel, click Set Default Browser, and finish by clicking OK.

Opera 7.54: Choose Tools, Preferences, select Default application in the left panel, and then click Select all to make Opera the default application for handling all 16 of the Internet file types and protocols listed on the screen--or choose only those you want it to handle by default. Click Check if Opera is default browser on startup if you prefer a warning when another browser tries to take over. Click OK.

Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.