Microsoft back to its old tricks, pushing Edge (again)

MattEclipsed

Seems Microsoft is back with it's good old coersive tactics forcing links in Outlook and Teams to open Microsoft Edge regardless of Default browser.

Microsoft has now started notifying IT admins that it will force Outlook and Teams to ignore the default web browser on Windows and open links in Microsoft Edge instead.

From https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/3/23709297/microsoft-edge-force-outlook-teams-web-links-open

pafflick

It looks like they're getting desperate. A few days ago, upon booting up my computer, I saw a familiar screen encouraging me to "finish configuring my PC", even though I didn't do anything that usually triggers such screens (like installing Windows or a major update). If I clicked the highlighted button to continue, it would've set Edge as my default browser. That's it - the whole purpose of bothering me with that unnecessary screen was to trick me into changing my preferred system settings against my will. And now this...

stardepp

Using MSEdgeRedirect helps against this:

https://github.com/rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect

wintercoast

@pafflick Why do they feel the need to do this? Ironically, they already have a good story with the Bing Chat integration that will entice some to at least try it, ditto with Bing itself. Of course, it's not for everyone but the strategy of offering something new and enticing is the way to go rather than forcing users against their will and/or dishonouring their previous choices.

Incidentally, I noticed a while back that links from, e.g., the Developer News tab inside Visual Studio used to open in Edge in a tab inside Visual Studio, whereas now they open externally in your default browser. I wonder if that will get reverted too.

Blackbird

@wintercoast said in Microsoft back to its old tricks, pushing Edge (again):

... Why do they feel the need to do this?

It's all about Microsoft's fixation on marketplace dominance in all things related to personal computer software. If it was up to them alone, their business model would shoehorn Microsoft versions of virtually all the world's application software into the Windows "suite" as defaults, charging rental for many of them by placing key portions "up in the cloud" to be fully accessed only via subscription fees.

As it is, they end up seeing how close to the world's anti-monopoly regulations that they can get without incurring huge penalties - especially regarding the EU. It will be 'interesting' in coming months to see how the Euro-regulators view Microsoft's recent emphasis on aggressively and deceptively shoving Bing and Edge upon users.

matt991

Any suggestions how to uninstall edge from windows 10? I'm just about at the point now of ditching windows completely..

Since installing Vivalidi a few weeks ago Ive been randomly prompted to make Edge my default browser a few times, and today the Edge search bar just appeared randomly on my desktop.. I never enabled anything..

Microsoft is out of control.

Pesala

@matt991 See Tom's Guide How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge.

stardepp

@matt991 With MSEdgeRedirect (open source) you can set Vivaldi as the default browser and this works very reliably, system wide, all links , no matter what kind in Windows definitely end up in the Vivaldi browser.

https://github.com/rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect

YTrojan

I've never liked Edge, or even its predecessor, the infamous Internet Explorer.
I would put a rant on Edge, but ToastyTech has already did the job for me.
"So Microsoft is screwing up their turd cake called Windows 11 in all kinds of uncreative ways. Today they are bringing back some more of their 1990's anti-compeditive behavior by making it harder to select a default browser other than Microsoft Edgey."

AllanH

@matt991 said in Microsoft back to its old tricks, pushing Edge (again):

Any suggestions how to uninstall edge from windows 10? I'm just about at the point now of ditching windows completely..

You may be interested in Edge Remover.
https://github.com/ionuttbara/edge-remover/