Last time I tested an extension of mine on Edge, I counted four or five distinct ways Windows and Edge tried to convince or coax me into setting Edge as default. (Coaxing includes but isn’t limited to full-screen one-click “finish setting up your computer” on boot which includes adopting “Microsoft-recommended” browser security settings which of course means resetting the default browser. It appeared on every reboot until someone told me about a setting to disable it.) Mind you, the four or five ways I encountered were from using Windows 11 Pro normally or opening Edge briefly; I’m not even counting additional conditional shenanigans like special banner on chrome.com, or asking you to use Microsoft everything (including on mobile devices) to bump up your position in Bing Chat waitlist.
The brazenness and shamelessness is really appalling.
They also try extremely hard to make you (accidentally) set your default browser to Edge. I occasionally test my web sites/extensions on Edge and I don’t remember how many times I’ve told it no. While other browsers ask you whether you want to set them as default, Edge asks you whether you want to use “Microsoft-recommended settings” (paraphrased), stating their true intention only in small print.
Also saw something new recently: got some “tips” in some sort of in-browser notification drawer, again asking to be set as default. Apparently denying synchronous dialogs as you open the browser aren’t enough, you should get nagged asynchronously as well.
Of course, when you check out their recent Bing Chat, you’ll be asked to set the entire Microsoft suite as default, plus installing their mobile apps, so that you can be bumped up in a completely opaque waiting list.
Just now? When you search for Firefox or Chrome on Bing (the default search engine on Edge), the first result in large font and contrasting background is "Microsoft Recommends You Keep Using This Browser" (referring to Edge). When you visit the Settings to change your default browser to something else, Edge has the line "Recommended for Windows 10" below it in bright letters, and switching it to anything but Edge pops open a confirmation window that reads "Before You Switch: Try Microsoft Edge" with the primary action being to do that, and the actual switch option below it in small gray lettering. OS updates spontaneously reset your default browser back to Edge, and every once in a while the OS will decide to send you a notification helpfully reminding you that Edge just got an update (it didn't) and you should check it out.
This is unrelated to Edge, but among the most despicable things I've seen Microsoft do was to promote their "Your Phone" app by popping up a notification that reads "You Got A Message". I didn't just get a message, and there's no way they could know that because I hadn't even installed their crap on my phone! Its like they're just pretending its all connected and displaying message notifications on your PC to get people to click it, then go through the setup.
Microsoft is a big company, with many divisions that are doing really great work. Their Windows division is so unimaginably the opposite of this, and has been for near a decade, that I'm beginning to think their push toward services and the cloud is only to hedge against this division, like leadership knows left to their own devices they'll crash into the ground and take Microsoft with them and no one can stop it.
* If you type Chrome into Bing you'll get a full page ad urging you not to switch.
* If you try to switch to use Chrome as your default browser it will ask you if you're really sure and you have to click the tiny text to actually switch.
* Edge and Windows 10 will send you notifications about Edge being the recommended browser and it's speed/security/whatever.
* If you install Adobe Reader and check "set as my default PDF reader" Windows 10 will send you a notification saying that "there's something wrong with your default reader app" and set it back to Edge.
* In the start menu Edge gets special treatment by having flavor text that says it's the Microsoft recommended browser.
* You have to use 3rd pary hacks to get the start menu search to use anything other than Edge & Bing.
* Microsoft teated a feature on insider builds which intercepted the installers for Chrome and Firefox and displayed a pop-up asking them to use Edge instead.
* Before they got backlash for it, once you switched your default browser to something not Edge Windows would open up your new browser to an ad for Edge.
That, and the in-app "make Chrome/FF the default browser" popup redirecting to a Windows settings page where when you choose anything else than Edge, you get yet another popup asking you to confirm that you really don't want to use the awesome browser that Edge is.
It's all the more infuriating when you consider how Windows 10 throws a hissy fit if you should dare to change your default browser from Edge to something else.
I refuse to use it out of spite in response to how hard Microsoft has tried to force Edge down everyone's throat:
resetting the default to Edge after a windows update, making start menu searches go to edge regardless of the default browser, etc.
Sounds like some high level product manager from Edge forced this decision on the Windows team. It makes no sense why they wouldn't respect a user's default settings. People configure a multitude of addons and customizations in their default browser, to completely bypass that seems like a poor customer experience.
The difference is that Microsoft doesn’t just give you Edge as the default, they actively try to get you to switch to Edge if you’re using something else, with random notifications, pop-ups in Settings, making it harder to switch to other browsers, making browser links opened by the OS (i.e. search bar, help) open in Edge, etc…
Windows can be very pushy about resetting the default every now and then. One update a year or two ago opened a full-screen ad for an Edge tutorial that could only be skipped by going into the task manager and force closing the process, and even then unset the default browser and added an Edge icon to both the taskbar and desktop. I wouldn't be a surprised if a lot of people have been bulldozed into taking the path of least resistance.
MS turns evil when it comes to the browser. Maybe for other things too, but I definitely notice it when it comes to their browser. Like every time Edge upgrades, it asks questions using weird wordage to get you to click on setting it as the default browser.
You're not kidding, I just opened Edge to see if I would notice any prompts, and it immediately threw up a popup in the middle of my screen asking to set it as the default browser and change my search to Bing (with "yes" selected by default, obviously).
I use it rarely but I know that I've told it no before. It looks like it's configured to ask periodically.
I'd echo a sibling comment that I'm often confused by these stories on HN, since this kind of thing never happens to me, and I use Windows 11 on a daily basis (on multiple machines).
Yes, they sometimes show a prompt after updates asking if I want to change the default browser to Edge — I always decline. And no settings change.
Boosting Edge's numbers by force-switching the default browser without asking would have such obvious, predictable backlash, I'd be pretty surprised if this ever shipped intentionally. Let alone changing Chrome's default search engine without asking — that very likely is illegal.
Is your Windows machine a personal one, or is it a corporate machine? I could imagine that poorly designed corporate IT update enforcement software would accidentally do this kind of thing.
It literally injects a "are you really, definitely sure you want to switch away from Edge?" kind of entry in the top search results when you use the preinstalled Edge to look up another browser. That is absolutely a dark pattern in my book, of the manipulative and desperate kind. Not to mention the constant struggle to (re)set your favorite browser as default where Windows fights you at every corner in pretty much the most extreme way that Microsoft can hope to get away with unless they want to risk sanctions from the EU.
I use Windows 10/11 daily. The number of times Edge was "forced on me": 0 The number of times Edge launched when I expected or wanted my default browser (Firefox): 0 The number of times my browser default was reset to Edge: 0
I just don't understand this outrage. I spend 90% of my time in Firefox/Chrome - I've only started using Edge lately to play with Bing "AI" Chat. I had to search for it!
If you use windows it will routinely set edge back to the default browser. The web team of microsoft is absolutely disgusting in every possible way, and it has always been.
The brazenness and shamelessness is really appalling.
reply