Setting Chrome Canary as your default browser

By default, Canary does not allow you to set it as the default browser, with this registry hack, you can do it.

Copy and save the text below in a *.reg file, and then run it. Remember to change "YourUsernameHere" to your actual username.



This solution comes from Superuser and works for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML]
"URL Protocol"=""
@="Google Chrome Canary HTML Document"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe,4"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\shell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSHTML\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe\" -- \"%1\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL]
@="Google Chrome Canary URL"
"FriendlyTypeName"="Google Chrome Canary URL"
"URL Protocol"=""
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe,4"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\shell]
@="open"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeSxSURL\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Users\\YourUsernameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome SxS\\Application\\chrome.exe\" -- \"%1\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec]
@="\"%1\",,0,0,,,,"
"NoActivateHandler"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
@="Google Chrome Canary"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic]
@="WWW_OpenURL"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice]
"Progid"="ChromeSxSHTML"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice]
"Progid"="ChromeSxSHTML"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm]
@="ChromeSxSHTML"
"Content Type"="text/html"
"PerceivedType"="text"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html]
@="ChromeSxSHTML"
"Content Type"="text/html"
"PerceivedType"="text"