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I was trying to some hack with Win-8 and I found something which is really gonna out my mind. When I set the default browser to the IE then its icon become Modern UI and I can't see the option Open file location at the bottom when I select it by right click. But if I don't set it default then it became a desktop version icon and show up the option when I select it.

Same is for the Google Chrome when I checked it.

IE icon when it is not set to default, I can see the option open file location.

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Google Chrome icon when it is set to default.

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Google Chrome of desktop version when it is set to default.

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So my question is where does Modern UI keep exe of the default browser? And why the default browser has Modern UI icon and non-default browser has desktop version icon.

Oliver Salzburg
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avirk
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2 Answers2

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Creating a new default browser doesn't create a new executable. As you can read on this Building Windows 8 blog entry, there is just one browser engine (the EXE) and two skins. One suitable for touch, and one suitable for desktop.

You can only have one ModernUI interface browser. Whatever browser is set as default (IE, Chrome, Firefox, etc) will be accessible in Metro mode.

Glorfindel
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Nathan DeWitt
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Default Metro apps are stored in Program Files\WindowsApps, but IE's EXE ought to be located in its own Program Files folder as always (no separate EXEs for desktop and Metro versions). Similarly for Chrome, check its installation dir.

In general, Metro apps do not have a single file that contains the program, like Desktop apps normally do. Metro/Windows Store apps (.appx packaged) run in App Containers that contain many different files/folders.

As for the icons, only your default browser will be available in Metro. In other words, if you set Chrome as your default browser, you’ll lose access to Metro IE, and vice versa. Thus when you set the Metro version of a browser as the default, the icons for the other installed browsers automatically changes since their desktop version is now launched instead.

Karan
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