Microsoft Edge, the default internet browser that comes pre-installed on roughly 1.4 billion Windows PCs, is fairly darn good. Over the previous few years Microsoft has invested numerous money and time in increasing its options to compete with Chrome. So it’s a disgrace that I’ve to inform you, as soon as again, that Microsoft is abusing its place because the writer of Windows to try to pressure its customers onto its first-party browser.
Earlier this week, some Windows customers discovered that each time they opened Chrome, the Windows default app settings window would open too. Some of them reported that the window would open each time they clicked a hyperlink within the browser, as long as Chrome was set to the default. The difficulty gave the impression to be particularly frequent for Windows Enterprise customers. Apparently it was an issue with the KB5025221 Windows replace issued in April, which broke Chrome’s one-click possibility to alter the default browser, a characteristic Google launched final 12 months. Gizmodo experiences that merely altering the title of the Chrome executable was sufficient to keep away from the problem, indicating that Microsoft’s replace particularly focused Chrome’s default button conduct.
But that’s not the top of the story. Just this morning Microsoft introduced {that a} new replace to the desktop variations of Outlook and Teams will pressure hyperlinks to open within the Edge browser, ignoring the person’s default settings in the event that they’re assigned to a different browser. Not solely is it a flagrant abuse of Microsoft’s place because the writer of Windows and its related instruments, it’s blatantly ignoring Windows’ customers skill to set customized app associations with information and hyperlinks.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Pushing Edge (and previously Internet Explorer) on customers with these passive-aggressive techniques is nothing new for Microsoft. In truth it tried exactly the identical tactic with the default Mail program 5 years in the past. The Settings menu for apps nonetheless begs you to attempt Edge the primary time you alter the default browser, and making internet searches from the Start menu will ignore your default browser setting if it isn’t Edge. Edge nonetheless periodically nags you to alter your default once you open it, which is significantly cheeky since apparently Microsoft has deliberately hamstrung Chrome’s skill to do precisely the identical factor.
But there’s a sure irony in these newest makes an attempt to push Edge on customers, just some weeks after a Microsoft consultant stated, “We have taken and will continue to take steps to mitigate unrequested modifications to a user’s choices.” It doesn’t assist that final week Edge was caught sending person visitors knowledge to Bing — an alleged bug that Microsoft patched shortly, however not shortly sufficient to provide a black eye to the corporate’s boasts of safety and privateness on the browser’s promotional web page.
Microsoft, within the clever if uncouth phrases of my Texan grandpa, “Don’t piss on my boots and tell me it’s raining.” Eight years after its introduction, and regardless of being put in on over a billion machines, Edge has simply 10.95 p.c of the desktop browser market — even lower than Apple’s Safari as of this month. It’s clear that no quantity of manipulative methods are going to pressure Windows customers off of their most well-liked browser, so it could be clever to cease attempting.
To paraphrase one other nice Texan thinker, “You’re not making Edge better, you’re just making Windows worse.”
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer
Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been constructing and tweaking desktop computer systems for longer than he cares to confess. His pursuits embody folks music, soccer, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no specific order.
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