[UPDATE: Windows 10 TOO!] Microsoft forces Edge to be the only option for Windows 11 apps & widgets (Antitrust? What Antitrust?)

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, akio123008 said:

Any browser except firefox is basically chrome at this point, it all looks the same, it all runs the same, it all feels the same. 

I keep seeing people say this, but i can't agree.  I used the "new edge" a few weeks in windows 11 (which i since uninstalled) and it doesn't look feel or function anything alike chrome,  pop-ups everywhere, obscure settings that don't stick, "news" i don't want and that somehow keep returning ...

So no, its not like chrome at all, which actually looks and feels how i want it to look and feel and doesn't randomly revert my settings,  search is also miles better,  bing completely sucks lol. 

 

1 hour ago, akio123008 said:

I couldn't care less if it opens in chrome, firefox or edge.

For me it's important to know where everything is and how it works and not to mention things like adblock and other features which work in chrome and not in other browsers,  and even if they did - which they do not btw - id need to set it all up first, for what  ... tldr: edge especially is a ui and privacy nightmare and nothing like google chrome.

 

 

1 hour ago, akio123008 said:

Why do(n't) you want to use a specific browser?

No, i do , and its not Microsoft,  nor Firefox,  you maybe should do some research why choice of browser is important,  especially on a Microsoft OS.

 

 

[Xiee]

Didn't someone create a script or some automation to remove Edge as the default browser and set it to something else? That would be really helpful.

[Mark Kaine]

Just now, Xiee said:

Didn't someone create a script or some automation to remove Edge as the default browser and set it to something else? That would be really helpful.

I just read about this on reddit,  apparently yes, but why should you have to use a third party "hack" for something that should just work out of the box?

 

 

 

[Xiee]

Just now, Mark Kaine said:

I just read about this on reddit,  apparently yes, but why should you have to use a third party "hack" for something that should just work out of the box?

 

 

 

For people who manage multiple PCs like IT guys. It would be tiring to go through 20+ PCs and do this one by one manually. Our boss hates Edge and will often tell us to switch the defaults of every PC back to Firefox.

[rcmaehl]

5 hours ago, AkIonSight said:

Another Thing, Microsoft has also removed the ways Things like EdgeDeflector work, so there is no legal way to change it

another day of thanking god that I use linux

More info:

https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector

https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector/issues/141

https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector/issues/141#issuecomment-966402781

 

I'm quite aware

 

[MultiGamerClub]

6 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

News and Interest, Widgets in Windows 11, various help links in the Settings app, search links from the Start menu, Cortana links, and links sent from paired Android devices

Ok so were not ENTIERLY fucked from switching browsers..

 

Good to know, thought the title suggested we couldnt change browers at all.

Because i would still fuck windows 11 in regedit and forcefully change it somehow then

[Arika]

Just now, MultiGamerClub said:

Good to know, thought the title suggested we couldnt change browers at all.

yeah title is terrible

[Xiee]

31 minutes ago, MultiGamerClub said:

Ok so were not ENTIERLY fucked from switching browsers..

 

Good to know, thought the title suggested we couldnt change browers at all.

Because i would still fuck windows 11 in regedit and forcefully change it somehow then

Yeah, I think Microsoft doesn't want a repeat of the whole Netscape fiasco way back.

[StDragon]

 Being that Edge is now based on Chromium, developed by Google, can MS really claim it's their browser in whole but not in part?

[rcmaehl]

32 minutes ago, Arika S said:

yeah title is terrible

I'm open to suggestions because I went through like 10 revisions to try to prevent it from being too long

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

I'm quite aware

 

Its kinda funny that github is owned by ms...

1 hour ago, rcmaehl said:

I'm open to suggestions because I went through like 10 revisions to try to prevent it from being too long

You could maybe add for "what" it is the only option,  title makes it sound like chrome, firefox,  etc don't work at all anymore .

 

Just a general observation: its possible to make titles that give all important information,  we're just used to titles that don't do this anymore  "see what happened to my new iPhone!!!!"  no, I don't that's why I have yt channel blocker, everyone gets 1 chance only, if I see a single click bait title its done for I never see the channel again! (good example of why chrome is awesome = )  )

 

 

 

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Summary

Microsoft has recently made a change to Windows 11 in build 22494. This change forces Edge to be the only option for Search, News, and other Windows 11 apps.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

They really shouldn't have done this. This is just the default browser antitrust case with extra steps. The existing solutions were elegant and didn't require reacting to edge opening, simply just replacing what handled the request. Hopefully, user backlash will revert this. Unfortunately, per Microsoft, you need to be enrolled in the dev builds yourself to give the backlash. 

 

Sources

XDA

Ctrl Blog

Beta News

The Register (quote source)

This feels overblown. It's using those because they are considering those to be "OS" widgets. Wouldn't it suck if Chrome or Firefox is used and can't get that private information the OS provides to get the geographic location for these apps to work?

 

At any rate, I'm more inclined to say this is a consequence of GDPR rather than anything else.

 

[Roswell]

5 hours ago, emosun said:

Yet another reason to enjoy windows 7

 

Anyone running windows 10 shouldnt complain though as they should be used to terrible forced implementations by now. Were talking about people who are fine with ads in the UI ffs. Lol

Windows 7 is a terrible choice. Outdated DX, Nvidia dropping driver support, no security patches, etc. Sticking with it at this point is pretty foolish.

[NumLock21]

1 hour ago, rcmaehl said:

I'm open to suggestions because I went through like 10 revisions to try to prevent it from being too long

Can change to something like, Microsoft overrides default browser with Edge when opening links

[Roswell]

9 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

They really shouldn't have done this. This is just the default browser antitrust case with extra steps.

You realize that Microsoft won that case, right? The outcome was that they were allowed to keep bundling their default software as long as they provided some inconsequential API access.

 

There’s no antitrust issue because the courts ruled that this doesn’t qualify as such.

[suicidalfranco]

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

It doesn't work this way. Apple's enforcing of shit actually makes sense to a degree and isn't annoying because everyone WILLINGLY wants to be there. Whatever Microsoft always tries turns into absolute vomitfest. Also Microsoft doesn't have that luxury with Windows.

classic example of a double standard

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

You can't shill your OS as this open platform for 30+ years and suddenly you want to become Apple with tightly integrated and closed ecosystem.

when has MS ever defined Windows has an open platform?

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

It just doesn't work that way and Microsoft's garbage "S Mode" or "Windows 10 S" is a testament to that. It's the most useless OS in existence. Only apps you can download and use are from Microsoft Store and saying their store is total garbage ever since it was introduced with Windows 8 back in 2012 would be an understatement. After 3 years of using iPhone I absolutely can't say the same for their offering... And we all know what happens when OS doesn't have apps. It's how all mobile OS died off.

yes but "their platform, their rules". If MS wants to run Windows through the mud, it's their to do as they see fit. Just because Apple was succesfull in their implementation of the app store, i dont see why one should be allowed to do as they please and the other gets to be be denied that luxury, iOS is Apple's the same as Windows is MS's. IF you are going to argue hat apple can restrict what you can and cannot do on their platform, i.e. removing fortnite from the app store and not allowing any alternate way to install it, then MS can restrict what you can and cannot do with their platform, i.e. making edge the only browser option (which is pretty similar to something apple already does since no browser is allowed to run a different engine than the one used on safari, so firefox on iOS is just a safari reskin, because "their platform, their rules"). 

10 hours ago, RejZoR said:

What's even more funny is that Microsoft gives no one any incentive to use their store. Not even software vendors to officially host their stuff. You have few sprinkled here and there and that's it. There is bunch of questionable "companies" that host stuff there and even charge for them. Like for example something basic as 7-zip. That's published by some GNUStudio I never heard of or know it's related to Igor Pavlov (the actual author of 7-zip) and they charge 10€ for what's otherwise free. Microsoft seems to be totally fine with it and this is something that is suppose to instill confidence into using their trash app store? LOL, not a chance.

again, "their platform, their rules" entails that MS is free to toss their toy into the mud if they get a kick out of it. 

Don't like it just get an android linux.

 

but i guess some people really enjoy the concept of "rules for thee but not for me". 

[Mark Kaine]

I like it its a lot clearer now @rcmaehl

 

 

[Jito463]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

if I see a single click bait title its done for I never see the channel again! (good example of why chrome is awesome

How is that a Chrome thing?  Youtube itself gives you the option to block channels, you don't need a plugin for it.

 

Actually, on second glance I guess they changed it to "Don't recommend channel", but it's the same end result.

[Mark Kaine]

7 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

Youtube itself gives you the option to block channels, you don't need a plugin for it.

Nope.

 

7 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

Actually, on second glance I guess they changed it to "Don't recommend channel", but it's the same end result.

Actually doesn't work so nope. 

 

(Ps: i don't even get that option,  only "not interested" and it does nothing... thats how I even got looking for an actual blocker)

 

(Pss: its glorious,  single click, the channel just vanishes haha)

 

 

[Tamesh16]

11 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Every time Microsoft does this s**t I just hate Edge even more

Same and the thing is, Edge isnt even that bad. I used edge on my work pc because I was too lazy to seek admin access just to download chrome and I learnt to like it. Now I use both on my personal machine to keep work and normal browsing separate and it works well. But forcing things to open through edge is annoying, I would rather have my own preference for that.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Didn't they get sued into the ground over this in Europe back in the XP days?

[AkIonSight]

Its weird that Im grateful that i can uninstall pre-installed apps, without doing anything but the usual procedure of deleting any old third party app

 

like the other day i just deleted PopShop (the app store) and Totem (the built in music player, similar to groove music) and I could, nothin broke

 

Idts you cant even legally uninstall the Microsoft store

[AkIonSight]

7 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

I keep seeing people say this, but i can't agree.  I used the "new edge" a few weeks in windows 11 (which i since uninstalled) and it doesn't look feel or function anything alike chrome,  pop-ups everywhere, obscure settings that don't stick, "news" i don't want and that somehow keep returning ...

So no, its not like chrome at all, which actually looks and feels how i want it to look and feel and doesn't randomly revert my settings,  search is also miles better,  bing completely sucks lol. 

 

For me it's important to know where everything is and how it works and not to mention things like adblock and other features which work in chrome and not in other browsers,  and even if they did - which they do not btw - id need to set it all up first, for what  ... tldr: edge especially is a ui and privacy nightmare and nothing like google chrome.

 

 

No, i do , and its not Microsoft,  nor Firefox,  you maybe should do some research why choice of browser is important,  especially on a Microsoft OS.

 

 

Internally, all of them are just reskinned versions of chromium

[RejZoR]

10 hours ago, nurax1337 said:

You can even use the new Microsoft Store (default in Win 11, now rolling out in Win 10 aswell) or - even better - WinGet via Terminal (= CMD / Powershell)

Yeah, I don't think so. I'm not going to tie browser updating to trash Microsoft Store when it has its own updater and I certainly won't try to remember a commanline noodle to do it via Powershell.

[Mark Kaine]

25 minutes ago, AkIonSight said:

Internally, all of them are just reskinned versions of chromium

 That doesn't make them look or feel the same,  which was the claim I was disputing.  This is like saying all UE4 games look, feel and function the same... its just not what's happening. 

 

 

29 minutes ago, AkIonSight said:

Its weird that Im grateful that i can uninstall pre-installed apps, without doing anything but the usual procedure of deleting any old third party app

 

like the other day i just deleted PopShop (the app store) and Totem (the built in music player, similar to groove music) and I could, nothin broke

 

Idts you cant even legally uninstall the Microsoft store

what do you mean by that (just curious) afaik you can't deinstall it at all without 3rd party apps - or alternatively precise knowledge of how to achieve the same by yourself,  but i think both would be totally legal - you can however simply rename the exe , which only takes like 5-10 minutes without much experience and it will not function anymore***  - you could also disable updates in which case the store will semi cease to function (it will still download certain things like nvidia control panel, but no angry birds etc,  and it also won't let the user download anything by themselves) <-- thats what I did btw.

 

 

***of course this method will still require you to disable updates,  because if you don't windows will simply "fix" it with the next update at the latest = )