# Changing the web browser used by the help system

The help system uses browser adapters to display online documentation in an embedded web browser or an external browser you have installed on your system.

If embedded web browser is supported on your system, help uses an embedded help browser to display help, whenever possible. When a modal window is showing on the screen, that would prevent interacting with the embedded browser, requesting help opens an external browser. If embedded browser is used on your system and you prefer to always use external browser, you select this behavior in help preferences. Similarly, if you have more than one supported adapter and browser, you can select which adapter you want the help system to use. To change the web browser adapter setting:

1. Select Window > Preferences to open the Preferences notebook.
2. Select Help.
3. If embedded help browser is supported on your system, but you prefer to use external one, select Always use external browsers.
4. In the Current web browser adapter box, select the desired adapter. If only one external adapter appears, it cannot be changed.

If your system does not have any of the supported browser adapters installed, you may only see Custom browser in the Preferences. In that case, specify a path to the browser program that launches your browser. If the program is available on your system path, you may specify only the program name. If the program does not accept URL as its last parameter, you may use %1 string to denote the position of the URL parameter in the command.