Microsoft Windows U-turn Removes Warning About Installing Chrome, Firefox (cnet.com) 100
Earlier last week, several users with a new Windows 10 build reported that they were seeing a warning when they attempted to install Chrome or Firefox browser. It turns out, Microsoft has listened to the complaints and is reversing course. CNET reports: A new "fast-ring" test version of Windows, Insider Preview Build 17760, no longer interrupts the installation of rival browsers, a CNET test shows. Earlier this week, an earlier test version of Windows would warn people who tried to install the Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Vivaldi web browsers, "You already have Microsoft Edge -- the safer, faster browser for Windows 10." The dialog box presented two options: "Open Microsoft Edge" -- the default -- and "Install anyway." The feature raised some hackles and brought back memories of Microsoft's strong-arm tactics promoting its old Internet Explorer browser in the first browser wars two decades ago. But Microsoft isn't alone in such tactics: Google promotes its Chrome browser as faster and safer to people who visit its own websites with other browsers.
That was expected after the bad press (Score:1)
Microsoft went too far with that tactic. Doing an advertisement like Google does is one thing, messing up with a installation is another.
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And by virtue of the install anyway button, they are not.
Horrible practice, but ultimately rather meaningless as they don't prevent installation.
Other than the blatant pop-up, I don't see this as differing much from the difficulty of installing third party non-Apple approved apps on an iDevice...
Ads are too far too. (Score:5, Informative)
Unlike Google I actually pay to use Windows on my systems. It needs to be an operating system, not a fucking ad machine, which is what it is becoming.
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If you think Google is not an ad machine and you're not paying for it, boy do I have news for you... :-)
Re: Ads are too far too. (Score:1)
I do not pay cash to google. I pay with my eyeballs seeing ads. Thatâ(TM)s the difference.
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I use https://duckduckgo.com/ [duckduckgo.com] as search machine, and block ads on youtube.
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Google has ~35% of the global ad market. They serve you (nearly?) every ad here on Slashdot, for one example, which you can see if you close one. Unless you're blocking those too - Google's ads are fairly easy to block because they're relatively well-behaved.
Wut? (Score:1)
OP didn't say Google was NOT an ad machine. OP's point is you pay for the OS, it's not an ad-supported service.
Re:That was expected after the bad press (Score:5, Funny)
They tried putting it on Bing, but nobody visits that site.
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Ah, so you're the nobody!
Welp (Score:2)
I am not surprised. The browser is the gateway to everything online, so it's only fitting that companies fight tooth and nail over customers.
Is it moral? Debatable. Is it expected? I would say yes.
Re:Welp (Score:5, Funny)
Are we replying to questions with other questions? It looks like it.
That leaves just Google scaring users (Score:1, Interesting)
Every time I visit the Google homepage with something other than Chrome I get a big prompt with a button to go and install a "more secure browser". Can we get Google to take this down next or does only Microsoft live by this standard?
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There's gotta be a plugin to remove that... If not, writing one should be easy, just change the browser tag to whatever Chrome uses when visiting a page belonging to google.
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You shouldn't have to. But if something bothered me that much, I'd start getting active instead of hoping that someone might one day do it for me.
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You shouldn't have to. But if something bothered me that much, I'd start getting active instead of hoping that someone might one day do it for me.
Here's a better use of your developer time: Write a plugin to block all those annoying pop-over "Breaking News" banners on every goddamn news site. It's not breaking news if it's been on your site all day or sometimes several days. Or how about blocking all the "sign up for a better experience" or "give up your email for our newsletter" pop overs on every other site. I can browse with noscript, but it breaks 95% of all sites and I get tired of allowing scripts one by one hoping to make the site work ag
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Every time I visit the Google homepage with something other than Chrome I get a big prompt with a button to go and install a "more secure browser". Can we get Google to take this down next or does only Microsoft live by this standard?
That is a serious false-equivalence. If we're holding them to the same standard then Microsoft is free to promote Edge on a website that it owns. (assuming that you're even telling the truth about the Google homepage - I can't reproduce what you're reporting so I'll just have to take your word for it)
Now, if having Chrome installed on your computer also added a routine to monitor for and interrupt attempts to install any competing browser then you might have a point about Google, but it still wouldn't excus
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Every time I visit the Google homepage with something other than Chrome I get a big prompt with a button to go and install a "more secure browser".
How do you manage that? I have just tried with Opera, Vivaldi and Firefox, and I just get the homepage - no prompts.
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Warning! (Score:3, Funny)
Installing those browsers could endanger the feelings of Edge. Why doesn't anyone love our little Edge? You Racists!
That should at least get the left back into the boat.
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You are satirizing the left. That endangers the cultural revolution and leftist takeover and is therefore racist. Please join Linus Torvalds in his re-education camp somewhere in the Ozarks, MI.
Never forget taking your daily dose of soy and Prozium.
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Soy? Is that the politically correct and gender indifferent version of "to be" now?
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I wish ... (Score:5, Funny)
I still use Internet Explorer (Score:5, Funny)
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Have you considered using Edge? It's the safer, faster browser for Windows 10 for you to download a better browser.
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they are not 'listening to users'... (Score:5, Insightful)
don't kid yourself.. they don't give a shit about you.
they're listening to their lawyers.
Still has a prompt when changing default browser (Score:5, Informative)
Obvious dumb idea (Score:2)
They should've known they'd catch hell for this so why do it only to have to walk it back?
Re:Obvious dumb idea (Score:4, Insightful)
They should've known they'd catch hell for this so why do it only to have to walk it back?
They knew they would catch hell for it, but they also knew there would be no real consequences. In the meantime, maybe they could get more suckers to try Edge before Microsoft had to stop its attempt to leverage its desktop monopoly to get back into browsers.
Re:Obvious dumb idea (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm going to guess trying to *intentionally* invoke Streisand effect.
They *know* that pulling these shenanigans in a beta build won't have *substantial* negative impacts. No legal troubles (it was just a preview) and people moving to a different desktop OS? Maybe if MS wasn't pretty much a monopoly and there were viable choices, but they know their users aren't going anywhere.
What they *did* get was every tech media outlet mentioning that MS considers edge good enough to tell people not to bother with chrome/firefox.
So people mock Edge some more, but edge *always* gets mocked. I wouldn't be surprised if some casual users latched on to the 'hmm... maybe Microsoft has something if they are willing to try to take things that far, maybe I'll give it a try now.
Basically, MS has nothing to lose, but the publicity might move the needle a little. I guarantee that edge nor Windows *loses* any share over this.
One could argue this undoes their efforts to earn goodwill by appearing to be industry friendly, but realistically speaking people don't trust them anyway.
Nice false equivilance (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, Microsoft is alone in these tactics as Google isn't interrupting other installations. If Microsoft put up an ad on Bing.com calling Edge the fastest secure browser, then you'd have a comparison.
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does edge have a version of ublock origin or any other ad blockers? if the answer is no then it's not more secure.
I was shocked to see that there is an adblock extension for edge in the microsoft store.
I don't use edge so don't know if it works the same, but it was from the same group that the chrome/firefox extension is from.
Only on a 3-second lark did I search for "noscript" and "scriptsafe" finding no results, and I'm not near a win10 computer now to check for ublock.
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On the other hand, Chrome is shovelware that's bundled in with a lot of other installers, so it's not like Google isn't evil either. If Microsoft wanted to do something actually useful, they could have thrown up a warning along the lines of "It looks like installer is also trying to install Chrome. Are you sure you meant to do that?".
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Google is evil AF - their engineers are resigning at giving China a fraction of the capabilities that the NSA/CIA/FBI have had with access to Google's services for at least a decade, but DGAF about writing murderbot software for the Pentagon.
But on this specific evil, Microsoft is alone. If we started seeing pop ups on Android devices whenever we try to install Firefox, we'll have an apples to apples comparison, but not until then.
Will Firefox show up in the store? (Score:2)
It wasn't there yesterday when I looked. I didn't bother looking for chrome.
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Thanks for the specific reference.
>Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform.
I wonder if that's TOS speak for "other browsers need not apply" or if there is a valid reason for that exclusion.
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Disturbing Microsoft even considering (Score:1)
I know this was not released into a mainstream version of Windows 10. But just the ideal Microsoft was even testing it is disturbing. Windows for me has always been the best OS purely on the fact it runs so many software titles. If Microsoft decides for me what apps can run on Windows then its time to find a different OS. Sorry Edge hasn't worked out for you Microsoft. Maybe rethink the whole concept and make a browser people will actually use? Instead of trying to force it on everyone.
The more likely reason... (Score:2)
"Oh shit we've opened ourselves up to another antitrust lawsuit!"
I'm somewhat disappointed that they reversed course. Microsoft desperately needs to be slapped around with how they've managed Windows 10.
Google Chrome hypocrisy (Score:3)
Now can the tech world stop being hypocrites and come down on Google next for the shit they're pulling with Chrome?
Drive-by trojan installs inside of unrelated software. Endless nagging to change the default browser, leveraging their market share of online services (search, email, etc) to do so. Proprietary web markup resulting in "This page requires Google Chrome" crap that Microsoft got their ass reamed out about during the original browser wars.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/... [theverge.com]
People have short attention spans. Google is pulling all the same shit Microsoft got held to the fire over but for some reason everyone is willing to give Google a free pass. What the fuck? Browser monoculture is NOT ok... all the same reasons apply even when it's Chrome and not IE.
Chrome is a fucking arrogant RAM and resource hog and you're better off using Firefox anyway. Is Firefox perfect? Of course not, they have lots of room for improvement. But compared to the clusterfuck that Chrome has become, it's the lesser of 3 evils by a mile.
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All relevant parts of Chrome, JavaScript and HTML engines, plugin architecture, etc are open source. Additionally Chrome has far fewer proprietary extensions then IE ever had. It's just that Edge still does not support basic stuff like Formdata.
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Chrome is not open source, Chromium is. And even then:
"Drive-by trojan installs [of Chromium] inside of unrelated software. Endless nagging to change [to] the [Chromiom] browser, leveraging their market share of online services (search, email, etc) to do so. Proprie
Quitters Do Win (Score:1)
I quit Facebook a long time ago.
Every now and again, a friend or family member will mention a post in some huge fight thread on Facebook.
I always think to myself that quitting Facebook was one the better decisions that I've made in my life.
Likewise, in 2005, I removed Windows and installed Ubuntu Linux. I did change to Linux Mint, but never went back to Windows.
13 years later, I see yet another Slashdot article about yet another stupid thing Windows 10 does to its users.
I just thought to myself that quittin
Or search for Google in IE or Edge. . . (Score:2)
. . . when you type "Google" into the search bar. it delivers a Bing Search box, and asks why not use Bing instead. . . and THEN links Google, but not a search box. . .
Reminds you of their DR-DOS stunt... (Score:2)
... back in the '90s, doesn't it?
That bunch never seems to learn. It wouldn't surprise me if Windows also pushes back when you try to make Firefox, Chrome, Opera, et al, the default browser.
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... back in the '90s, doesn't it?
That bunch never seems to learn. It wouldn't surprise me if Windows also pushes back when you try to make Firefox, Chrome, Opera, et al, the default browser.
You mean, again. There was a well known issue in the '90's where Microsoft would ask you during an update if you wanted to to switch your default browser from Netscape to IE, and no matter what button you pressed, it'd do it anyway. From memory, when this was exposed it was put down to a coding error and the responsible coder was "fired".
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There was that time I thought I'd update to IE6 on Windows 98SE, and the system got unbootable or unusable. I then never updated Windows ever again (till I got pwned in 2009)
If you only had to reinstall Windows from scratch the one time, especially in the late nineties, count yourself very lucky.
suffering from past decisions (Score:2)
Caveat; I'm neither an Edge nor a Chrome user.
Can't speak to the Chrome situation, but to me it doesn't matter if Edge was the greatest and fastest and most feature-rich browser that walked the earth. And yes, I regularly get nagged to use Edge instead, or speak to Cortana, neither of which I am ever inclined to do.
For me Microsoft forever ruined any chance of me ever trying a M$ built browser by how hard they promoted IE through the years, and (more importantly) how crappy it was. The only real usage of
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