I have Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome on my laptop and would prefer to use Google rather than IE when I wish to send info out from say 'Microsoft office Word', but IE is always chosen by my system. How do I force it to use Google Chrome instead?

I am running XP Pro.

Edited December 5, 200916 yr by cheshiremusicman

Click on settings on the top right hand corner of your Google Chrome page (the spanner symbol) then choose options. The bottom option of the 'basics' page allows you to choose Google Chrome as your default browser.

Click on settings on the top right hand corner of your Google Chrome page (the spanner symbol) then choose options. The bottom option of the 'basics' page allows you to choose Google Chrome as your default browser.

Many thanks for that advice, I will try it immediately. I just found it so annoying that IE was always selected and it is so much slower and unreliable ( as far as I am concerned ) than Google Chrome.

The only time I ever use IE, is to access some financial sites that won't accept Google Chrome as yet, but presumably they will alter that with time - I hope!

Click on settings on the top right hand corner of your Google Chrome page (the spanner symbol) then choose options. The bottom option of the 'basics' page allows you to choose Google Chrome as your default browser.

I've just checked this out and apparently 'Google chrome' is already acknowledged as my default browser. Any ideas where I go from here?

Click on settings on the top right hand corner of your Google Chrome page (the spanner symbol) then choose options. The bottom option of the 'basics' page allows you to choose Google Chrome as your default browser.

I've just checked this out and apparently 'Google chrome' is already acknowledged as my default browser. Any ideas where I go from here?

It works for me. Links (in emails for example) open in Chrome if I set it as default, as I described, in options. If I then go to IE and select tools, internet options, then programs, I can set IE as the default. Then those same email links open with IE.

Some programs are hard-coded to open websites in IE regardless of your default browser settings. I would think that Microsoft Office Word that you mention is probably one of them since it's a MS product (I know outlook uses default browser settings, but might be different in Word I don't know).

Some programs are hard-coded to open websites in IE regardless of your default browser settings. I would think that Microsoft Office Word that you mention is probably one of them since it's a MS product (I know outlook uses default browser settings, but might be different in Word I don't know).

I wonder if anybody out there has got any idea where I can go from here with this problem?

Perhaps we do not understand your problem. I don't. Word is an application and has nothing to do with web browsers. You talk about E-mail and that is not a Word application and also would not have anything to do with browsers unless you are trying to use web based E-mail and don't believe Word offers direct access to anything but e-mail clients. My Word opens Thunderbird if I select email.

What exactly are you selecting in Word where you want it to open a Chrome window? If you are making messages to send in G-Mail I would just use G-Mail itself but if you want to cut and paste that should also work. But I really don't know what you want to do.