Microsoft rushes to change Windows in EU to avoid yet another antitrust lawsuit

[rcmaehl]

Summary

After the EU announced an antitrust probe into Microsoft, Microsoft has rushed to push more consumer friendly changes to Windows 10 & 11... but only for EU residents.

 

Quotes

Quote

Microsoft has announced that it will unbundle...Teams from... its broader Office suite, following growing regulatory scrutiny. Effective from October 1. Enterprise customers in the European Economic Area (EEA),... will be able to purchase a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription without Teams included, and will be charged at €2 per month less. Customers that have Teams as part of their... subscription, but use... third-party tools to collaborate..., can lower their monthly outlay to Microsoft. But only larger customers will be able to buy Teams as a standalone product. Notably, new enterprise customers that sign up for Microsoft Office and who also want Teams, will pay more.  Microsoft is hoping to address at least some of Europe’s concerns while controlling the specifics. However, the Commission’s concerns extend into other realms of the antitrust space, including ways in which Microsoft may... restrict interoperability between its own services and that of its competitors. Microsoft has said that it will develop greater support and resources to support customers and developers looking to build integrations with Microsoft Office, or... Teams. Additionally, it said that it plans to “create new mechanisms” that will allow third-party developers to host Microsoft Office web apps without having to build their own integrations. “We believe these changes balance the interests of our competitors with those of European business customers, providing them with access to the best possible solutions at competitive prices,” Microsoft’s VP of European government affairs Nanna-Louise Linde noted. The European Commission... said that it takes note of Microsoft’s announcement, [and] it has no further comment to make at this time.

Quote

Microsoft will soon allow users in the European Union... to once again open all links in Windows using their default web browser rather than forcing... Microsoft Edge. As the company... released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531..., links in Windows systems apps will no longer open using Microsoft Edge. "In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links" Microsoft's choice to push Edge over the default web browser has irked Windows users for a while now. Windows 10 and Windows 11 include many features that display internet links you can click on, such as help articles in the Settings screens and Windows programs, search results in the Start Menu, and the Widget articles. However, when clicking on these built-in links, Windows forces them to open in Microsoft Edge regardless of the default browser you have configured. Earlier this year, the company also confirmed that web links from Outlook emails and Team chats now open in Edge "to improve and streamline [..] product experiences" The forcing of Microsoft Edge on Windows 11 users has annoyed enough people that some have created dedicated tools... specifically designed to enforce the default browser. Microsoft has yet to explain why it's only allowing European users to open all links... using the default web browser. Windows users from other countries are now even more frustrated because this will not be a global change. "How do I make Windows 11 think I'm in the EU?," someone asked today on the Hacker News social news platform. A spokesperson said that "Microsoft does not have anything further to add beyond the blog."

 

My thoughts

Microsoft, you <insert derogatory of choice here>, Bring these changes to Global versions of Windows. I'm tired of creating workarounds for you attempting to shove Edge and its massive tendrils of Microsoft/Windows feature integrations (and analytics) down users' throats. Whether it be through Start Menu Search, F1 and Links in File Explorer, Links in Settings, Links in Office/Outlook/Teams, Widgets, or Links in other MIcrosoft Products and Applications; it's just too much. You are obviously only doing this because you know the EU will come down hard, just like they did with IE all those years ago. It's just a shame you're making this a regional thing.

 

Sources

Microsoft Blog

Tech Crunch (Teams/Office Source)
Bleeping Computer (Default Browser Source)

[mMontana]

Now the whole world can bash Microsoft for pair treatment.

[Alex Atkin UK]

24 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

 I'm tired of creating workarounds for you attempting to shove Edge and its massive tendrils of Microsoft/Windows feature integrations (and analytics) down users' throats.

The sad part is, it works.  You hear of people saying they pay for Xbox Live by using Edge and its reward points, yet it never occurs to those people what is actually paying for that - scooping up all their data.

[divito]

The whole "antitrust" thing against Microsoft never made sense to me; there were always fallacies introduced, and other flawed reasoning. There are companies that do far worse now than IE or Edge, and yet nothing is done. But people still have this negative perception of Microsoft.

[podkall]

27 minutes ago, divito said:

The whole "antitrust" thing against Microsoft never made sense to me; there were always fallacies introduced, and other flawed reasoning. There are companies that do far worse now than IE or Edge, and yet nothing is done. But people still have this negative perception of Microsoft.

it's because despite their severity not being the highest or most problematic, Microsoft is a huge corporation that can afford not doing tedious workarounds,

 

how is tweaking Windows only for EU instead of everyone an easier or more affordable thing is beyond my comprehension, since one Windows update going live, could mean a change in everyone's PC worldwide as long as they install it or Windows forces the update..

[jagdtigger]

Thats "funny", contrary to this they aint afraid to install adware on my computer.....
 

Spoiler

(This is my gaming only pc, it popped on top of the full-screen game i was playing.....)

[TempestCatto]

Even though it'll only be for "EU residents" it likely won't be hard to implement the same things on North American versions. Might be digging in regedit a lot but there's always someone that finds a way. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

48 minutes ago, divito said:

The whole "antitrust" thing against Microsoft never made sense to me; there were always fallacies introduced, and other flawed reasoning. There are companies that do far worse now than IE or Edge, and yet nothing is done. But people still have this negative perception of Microsoft.

I partly disagree, Microsoft were the target because they are the market leader with the majority of the market share, so it makes sense to go after them for manipulating people into not using their competitors software/services.

 

However I do agree that its flawed in that I think that's no excuse to let other companies get away with doing the same, the same rules should apply regardless of your market share.

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

Even though it'll only be for "EU residents" it likely won't be hard to implement the same things on North American versions. Might be digging in regedit a lot but there's always someone that finds a way. 

You might be able to remove Teams but its not going to get you that discount for not having it bundled into the subscription.

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

The sad part is, it works.  You hear of people saying they pay for Xbox Live by using Edge and its reward points, yet it never occurs to those people what is actually paying for that - scooping up all their data.

Yes but at least we get paid for it. Google collects that stuff for free and we don't see a single cent. 

[TempestCatto]

3 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

You might be able to remove Teams but its not going to get you that discount for not having it bundled into the subscription.

Oh to be fair I've never paid for anything from MS ;). I just kinda meant in general. Besides that, I don't like having random software I will never use wasting space even if it's only 500mb. I'm just a little particular I guess.

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Yes but at least we get paid for it. Google collects that stuff for free and we don't see a single cent. 

Not strictly true, given YouTube haemorrhages money, something must be paying for it.

[HenrySalayne]

11 hours ago, divito said:

The whole "antitrust" thing against Microsoft never made sense to me; there were always fallacies introduced, and other flawed reasoning. There are companies that do far worse now than IE or Edge, and yet nothing is done. But people still have this negative perception of Microsoft.

You are literally making a textbook example of the fallacy of relative privation.

 

 

Besides, Windows and MacOS, iOS and Android are gigantic anti-consumer dumpster fires, with Microsoft Apple and Google constantly trying to cement their market share by questionable methods.

[Brooksie359]

5 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Not strictly true, given YouTube haemorrhages money, something must be paying for it.

Youtube makes Google billions of dollars each year. Idk where people get this idea that Youtube is some sort of money sink. 

[LAwLz]

12 hours ago, divito said:

The whole "antitrust" thing against Microsoft never made sense to me; there were always fallacies introduced, and other flawed reasoning. There are companies that do far worse now than IE or Edge, and yet nothing is done. But people still have this negative perception of Microsoft.

The lesser of two evils is still evil. 

[Doobeedoo]

Jokes on them I use Edge as default hueh. 

[mMontana]

Actually... I do.

On one side, PITA for copying and pasting links from email client and other sources on Firefox.

But when Edge appear... it's time to look for gremlins into my system.

[Stahlmann]

I don't have any office apps installed and use Edge as my main browser anyway. Even before this scrutiny i never have had any popups pulling me towards microsoft products (other than during the windows installer). And for the last half year Windows 11 has been working flawlessly for me. In fact i need less "under-the-hood" options to customize W11 to my liking than i needed with W10. In W10 i used tons of third party apps and regedit for multitasking, window snapping, customizing start menu, etc.

 

I personally don't see a problem in them pushing their own services. At least they're not actively locking you out from using their competitor's services.

 

And to people claiming Edge is bloated: You can disable pretty much any of these bloat features. Everytime something like their shopping tools or so were added i got a popup informing me of it and this popup also includes a shortcut to the option page that also has the off switch.

[mMontana]

Problem is: why I cannot opt out all the popups since beginning?

[SolarNova]

This be why I recommend using custom modified versions of Windows, with all the 'crap' stripped out.

Either use one that's has a proven and trusted track record, or modify it yourself.

I use Ghost Spectre myself, W10, and have had no issues.

[divito]

9 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

You are literally making a textbook example of the fallacy of relative privation.

 

 

Besides, Windows and MacOS, iOS and Android are gigantic anti-consumer dumpster fires, with Microsoft Apple and Google constantly trying to cement their market share by questionable methods.

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

The lesser of two evils is still evil. 

Except I'm not advocating that there hasn't been some anti-competitive practices by Microsoft. However, the bulk of the "transgressions," weren't logically sound. And just because others are still committing antitrust doesn't mean Microsoft should get off.

[Quackers101]

every 3 days or week, microsoft pushes a warning or startup screen to "create microsoft account".

also how they push links in search when I need something and it doesn't actually search for anything... annoys the hell out of me and makes me want windows 7 in how more "direct" it could be.

 

I think EU should push that any OS should have an default and "local/personal use in an neutral like OS", no third party unless accepted and no pushing of services in the OS itself, unless stated otherwise or "native apps" and could come at an little higher cost than "branded OS installs".

[Dr_Whom]

23 hours ago, mMontana said:

Now the whole world can bash Microsoft for pair treatment.

Yes, yes. This is a grape day for all!

[LAwLz]

7 hours ago, divito said:

Except I'm not advocating that there hasn't been some anti-competitive practices by Microsoft. However, the bulk of the "transgressions," weren't logically sound. And just because others are still committing antitrust doesn't mean Microsoft should get off.

I hope this isn't too off-topic, but how were the previous "transgressions" as you put it not "logically sound"?

[Mark Kaine]

My windows is unupdatable, try me, Microsoft!