macOS comes with a plethora of useful pre-installed apps, all of which brand the Mac ready to become every bit presently equally you accept information technology out of the box. Only you don't accept to employ these programs if you lot don't desire to - in fact at that place are some bright alternatives.

While the likes of Mail service, iTunes and Safari are set as the default applications on your Mac - meaning they launch automatically when you open an email, audio file or spider web link - information technology's easy to give these duties to other apps of your choosing. So read on and nosotros'll show yous a quick and easy style to alter the default programs on a Mac. (After y'all're finished, you'll probably desire to know how to delete the Mac apps y'all won't be using.)

What are default apps?

Every time you double-click a sure type of file, say an MP3 or JPG, your Mac volition automatically launch a preset application which yous tin can employ to interact with or edit the content. Generally this is helpful, only sometimes you might non desire to launch iTunes to bank check a few seconds of an sound file, or have Pages appear when y'all desire to edit a Word document.

In these instances you can do one of two things: temporarily change the app that your Mac uses, or arrive so that that file type is e'er opened by a different app. We take you through both approaches beneath.

How to temporarily launch a file in a different app

This is very easy and information technology won't alter the style your Mac treats files of that type in the future.

Open the Finder and navigate to the file you desire to use. Right-click on it to bring upward the contextual carte. Here you'll come across the option Open With.

How to change default apps on Mac: Temporarily launch a file in a different app

Highlight this and a list of usable apps will appear, with the default one at the superlative. At present simply select the alternative app that you want to utilise and the file will open up in that program instead.

How to alter the default apps that open up files

For a longer-term solution you lot'll need to get through private applications and change them manually.

Sadly in that location isn't a list of default apps anywhere that allows you to chop-chop arrange them en masse, but it doesn't accept long to switch them out for your preferred options. Plus y'all can always change them back over again afterwards if you find you liked the Apple offerings more than.

Irresolute the default browser

Safari is the browser of choice on macOS, but if yous've installed Firefox, Opera, Chrome or whatsoever other Mac spider web browsers you've probably been asked by those newcomers to make them the default instead.

If yous resisted those requests at the time you tin can still make the switch at present. Open up Organisation Preferences (the grey icon with a gear inside information technology) and select General.

How to change default apps on Mac: Changing the default browser

In hither you'll meet, most halfway down the page, a setting for the Default web browser. Click on the dropdown menu and you'll see all of the browsers you currently have installed, with the default one marked as such. To fix a new one just click on your portal of choice.

Changing your e-mail awarding

Mail is an old stalwart, merely it lacks some of the cooler features of modern email clients. To swap these over you'll need to open up the Mail app, click on Postal service > Preferences then open up the dropdown card beside Default email reader.

How to change default apps on Mac: Changing your email application

In here you'll see Postal service and any other email clients that you have installed. Select the ane you desire and from now on whenever you click an e-mail address to begin composing a message, your new default app will open up.

Changing default apps associated with certain file types

If you desire to change a default app other than your browser or electronic mail client then you lot can still do so. Open Finder, navigate to the file in question and correct-click information technology to bring upwards the contextual menu. Select Get Info and and then from the box that appears you'll find, about halfway down, the heading Open up with:

How to change default apps on Mac: Changing default apps associated with certain file types

Click this and y'all'll see the default app associated with this file type. Now click on the dropdown menu, select a new default, and so click the Choose All push. From now on, all files of that blazon will open with the default app yous selected.

That's information technology. You've overcome the tyranny of default apps and are at present gear up to forge an beingness on your own terms. What volition y'all practice with this new-found liberty? Well, you could showtime past checking out our guide to the Best complimentary Mac apps to see if they match your vision for a brave new world.