I needed to force Windows 10 to open a web browser in IE for some internal applications as they still use ActiveX add-ins.
Rather simply instead of using a URL shortcut, use a standard shortcut calling IE and passing the URL as a parameter. Here I call the 32bit version of IE (As I don’t know of any add-ins for IE that would be used by most companies that are 64 bit)

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%/internet explorer/iexplore.exe" <Web Address>

Firefox supports the same type of shortcut

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" https://www.cjsmith.me