Windows has introduced an update that blocks users from changing their default browser using a software utility or by modifying the Registry.<\/p>\n
A driver has been found sneakily nestled in the latest Windows 10 and 11 updates that only allow users to change their browser in the Windows settings.<\/p>\n
IT consultant Christoph Kolbicz noticed the change when his SetUserFTA and SetDefaultBrowser programs stopped working.<\/p>\n
SetUserFTA is a command line utility that allows you to change the file type associations for different programs.<\/p>\n
The command lets users configure which programs handle specific file types.<\/p>\n
SetDefaultBrowser is a similar utility that only sets your default web browser from the command line.<\/p>\n
SetUserFTA was reverse-engineered by Kolbicz in 2017 after Microsoft removed the functionality in 2012.<\/p>\n
This was due to Microsoft revamping the system to assign file extensions and URL protocols to open with specific apps.<\/p>\n
Its new system linked file type and protocol associations to a unique hash stored under the UserChoice Registry keys.<\/p>\n
If users do not use the correct hash, Windows will ignore the Registry values.<\/p>\n
When his SetUserFTA and SetDefaultBrowsaer stopped working, Kolbicz received the following error message: \u201cCannot edit Hash: Error writing the value\u2019s new contents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further investigation revealed Windows had locked down these Registry keys.<\/p>\n
Kolbicz found that a new filter driver introduced in the February updates for Windows 10 and 11 called \u201cUSPD.sys\u201d bars users from editing the registry keys of HTTP, HTTPS, and .PDF file associations.<\/p>\n
In tests conducted by BleepingComputer to verify this change, only Windows 10 devices were found to lock down Registry keys. However, many Windows 11 users reported experiencing the issue.<\/p>\n
Kolbicz mentioned that although users could not unload the driver from Windows, it could be disabled using the following command.<\/p>\n
New-ItemProperty -Path \u201cHKLM:\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\UCPD\u201d -Name \u201cStart\u201d -Value 4 -PropertyType DWORD -Force<\/code><\/p><\/blockquote>\nHowever, Gunnar Haslinger soon pointed out in a blog post that Windows had created a Scheduled Task to re-enable the driver.<\/p>\n
The only way to completely remove the driver is to delete the Scheduled Task and disable UCPD.sys in the Registry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hidden driver has prevented Windows users from changing their default browser using third-party software and the registry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341175,"featured_media":531631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[93481,123,807,26970,70233,93479,35787],"class_list":["post-531627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-christoph-kolbicz","tag-microsoft","tag-windows","tag-windows-10","tag-windows-11","tag-windows-registry","tag-windows-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531627"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531671,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531627\/revisions\/531671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}