Windows 10 URL:Twitter links now all go to Twitter desktop app instead of to my web-browser.

[Nomad of Norad]

I've run into a really, really annoying problem. There are a handful of Twitter desktop apps I installed ages ago because Twitter borked the web-interface at one point... I was never satisfied with any of the apps, and Twitter fixed what they'd broken in the Web interface, so I eventually went exclusively back to accessing them from the web browser.... tho, to be honest, I don't use Twitter that much anymore, other than to sometimes look at Twitter links people send me in IM.

Well, lately, the system has suddenly taken to launching one of those Twitter desktop apps I'd abandoned in place years ago, and I can't turn that "feature" back OFF. I actually did go in and reset the settings on that Twitter app back to default, from a few days ago, and things immediately went back to opening in my web browser again like I wanted.... but today Windows spontaneously resumed opening all my Twitter links in that bloomin' Twitter app again. I've gone through the set-your-default-apps-for-each-category pane in Windows, and all it does is let me choose what desktop APP to redirect Twitter URLs to, there's no Revert it back to the freaking BROWSER you eeeelectronic cretin!!! button in there.

Short of uninstalling every... cotton.... pickin'.... Twitter-related desktop app (I had tried several before giving up on the Twitter app approach altogether), I have no idea how to freaking FORCE it to permanently remain locked down to going to my default web-browser like I prefer it to. Bah! Why does Microshaft keep trying to second-guess all our choices and try to FORCE us to do it the way some double-danged chairwarmer at Microsoft THINKS we SHOULD do it? I want to smack them upside the head with a clue-by-four.

 

[Neemobeer]

I've never used twitter, but it's most likely a shell or protocol extension in the registry that's directing twitter to the desktop application. If it's a desktop application you should be able to remove it from control panel or system settings (windows 10). If it's a UWP (Microsoft Store) application you'll need to remove it through the store or via the Powershell Remove-AppxPackage cmdlet.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

Okay, so how do I go about determining which this is, and turn it back off from there? In any event, I have gone to Start > System > Settings > Apps, scrolled down to Twitter on that list, and selected Advanced options there, and then selected Set default apps, and then Choose default apps by protocol, for instance, selected Twitter from there, and the only options it gives is to select the existing Twitter app, or Look for an app from the store. There isn't anything resembling a means of dropping the app that is shown back out of consideration and reverting things back to having links go to the browser.

I DO notice that a step or two back from that, under the settings from Twitter there, directly above the Defaults header (where I can select to go to the Set default apps pane), that there's an option under the App permissions header to turn Background apps Off. Would that fix it?

This is also the pane where I'd reset the app back to default before, after which Twitter links went back to going to the browser again like they had for years. Nevertheless, the Twitter app quietly stole the thing back again a couple days later. Bah.

 

[Neemobeer]

If you're not using the app then remove it. Then there should't any chance of it taking over as the default application.