Check-mark the box that says not to ask again.

Well, that certainly presents a cosmetic solution, but I was looking for something more than a band-aid over it. It is valuable for me to know if some other browser has usurped the default role, so I don't want to disable this check.

What does FF actually look at, to determine whether it is the default browsers, if not the protocol and file associations? Apparently there's some further, undocumented quality associated with defaultness.

No-one knows? That's disappointing.

You'd think that there must be somebody who knows what FireFox checks, in order to see whether it is the default browser or not.

On the other hand, I'm also aware that this entire area of default programs is very flaky, erratic and unreliable in Windows 7.

Still, it's alarming that there are no answers at all.

hi, goto firefox broser in

1. Tools->Options->Advance

there in SYSTEM DEFAULT section uncheck the "always chek the firfox is default broswer on your system' and there you go....

tc, Yogi Ghorecha

This is the same answer that was given previously, Yogi, and is still unsatisfactory for the same reasons: it's a band-aid that hides, but does not address the issue, and disables an important feature of Firefox, namely detecting that something else has changed the default browser.

Apparently, how exactly that is done is a great mystery -- precisely what "default browser" means, if it is not association with the .html and .htm filetypes. Looks like nobody knows what it means, or what Firefox checks to make that determination.

I looked high and low and found no answers, only silly cover-up explanations that solve nothing.

Well, here's a solution that worked for me. The key is to have an administrator give you admin rights. Once you have the rights, you can finally set FF as default in 64bit Windows. AND you can successfully see FF as an option in the Default Programs application. Once FF is set, you can take off admin rights and you'll still have FF as default.

I honestly can't believe that: a) no one anywhere has mentioned this janky "fix" and b) Mozilla has not addressed this anywhere, at all.

HTH

I already was administrator and general sysgod of my computer.

I was provoked into trying related things at random, and here's what I came up with as a workaround:

If you go into Control Panel->Default Programs -> Set Program Access and Defaults, there are three radio-button options: Microsoft, Non-Microsoft, and Custom.

(Custom was already selected)

With the Mozilla Options->Advanced window open, check the "Set as default browser", then click the "Check Now" button. It will report that FF is not your default browser, etc. Ecce quaestio, and all that.

Back to "Set Program Access", click the "Non-Microsoft" button. Close it.

Back to FF, and try "Check Now" again. Now it says "FF is already your default browser".

Now RE-OPEN Control Panel and get back to "Set Program Access and Defaults". It's back to "Custom". But FF is apparently satisfied that it is the default now. Let's see if it stays that way.

That's an interesting path to take. In my general user case, FF didn't even appear in that list, but it's good to know that this solution worked for an already-admin. ...so far, anyway.