EdgeDeflector is a free open source program for Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system that unlocks the option to open hard coded Microsoft Edge links with other browsers.
The initial version of Windows 10 came without browsing restrictions. You could set a default browser, and any link would open in that browser.
Microsoft introduced hard coded links that would only open in Microsoft Edge with an update; this meant at the time that some links, Cortana links or Help file links, would open in Microsoft Edge regardless of which browser was set as the default system browser.
Microsoft created a special protocol that masks regular URLs so that they only open in Microsoft Edge. So, instead of using links in the format https://www.ghacks.net/, Microsoft would prepend microsoft-edge: to the URL. Since no browser but Edge supports the protocol, these URLs are opened in Edge automatically and not the default system browser.
While you can modify the protocol under Settings > Apps > Choose default apps by protocol, only Store applications can be selected.
EdgeDeflector
EdgeDeflector is a free program for Windows 10 that unlocks functionality to open these links in a browser that is not Edge.
What EdgeDeflector does is the following: it registers itself for the microsoft-edge: protocol so that it becomes the default program to open these URLs on the Windows 10 machine. It parses the links, rewrites them, and passes them on to Windows again which in turn opens the link using the default web browser on the system.
When you install Edge Deflector you are prompted to pick an app with which you want to open Microsoft-Edge protocol URLs. You need to select EdgeDeflector there, and can verify that this worked by opening the “default apps by protocol” page.
Read also: First look at Microsoft Edge Preview for Android
EdgeDeflector does not run in the background, but it will become active whenever you open URLs that use this protocol on the Windows 10 machine.
It is a redirector application that sends the target URL to the default system browser.
EdgeDeflector is not the first program that handles this. SearchWithMyBrowser is a commercial Microsoft Store application that does the same.
Closing Words
The program may be useful to others who use Windows 10 but don’t want to use Microsoft Edge, or prefer that locked links, e.g. from Cortana web searches or Help files, get opened in the default system browser they picked, and not in Microsoft Edge. (via Deskmodder)