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Microsoft To Block Windows 11 Browser Workarounds (thurrott.com) 134

Posted by msmash from the what-a-shame dept.
The creator of EdgeDeflector said this week that the latest Insider build of Windows 11 now blocks all default browser workarounds. If this functionality makes its way to the finished product, it will mark a new, dark chapter for Microsoft, which told the media at the Windows 11 launch that it was aware that it had made changing app defaults pointlessly difficult, but that it had not done so maliciously and would fix it. This is the opposite of that claim. From a report: "Something changed between Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 (both Windows Insider Preview builds)," EdgeDeflector creator Daniel Aleksandersen writes in a new blog entry. "The build changelog ... omitted the headline news: you can no longer bypass Microsoft Edge using apps like EdgeDeflector."

Microsoft not communicating effectively? I find that hard to believe. Cough. But Microsoft moving to make Windows 11 behave even more maliciously towards its users and browser rivals? That I have a hard time with. Basically, EdgeDeflector, as well as third-party browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Brave, intercept OS-level URL requests that force you to use Microsoft Edge even when you have gone through the incredibly ponderous steps to make a non-Edge browser the default in Windows 11. But in the latest Insider Preview build, Microsoft is changing how these URL requests work. And it's no longer possible to intercept URL requests that force users to use Edge instead of their default browser. (In the Insider builds. This functionality will come to mainstream users in the coming months unless we can change Microsoft's collective mind.)
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Microsoft To Block Windows 11 Browser Workarounds More

Microsoft To Block Windows 11 Browser Workarounds

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  • Anti-Trust 2: Browser Boogaloo (Score:5, Informative)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @01:10PM (#61981963) Journal

    Isn't this the whole thing that got them sued the first time around and they had to make the E versions for Europe?

    • You mean the browser choice screen that "accidentally" got left out for more than a year?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        You mean the browser choice screen that "accidentally" got left out for more than a year?

        Yes. I hope that will cost them, say, 500M or so. Note that Win11 is a new OS, so the old court ruling does not apply directly, but I would be very surprised if they will not get slapped down again.

    • I think that was the tying alone that got them into trouble, both in the US and Europe. Back in the 90's, it used to be once you installed a web browser it would automatically set itself to the default. Later came a sort of "gentlemen's agreement" between Microsoft and Netscape that they would ask the user to set the browser to the default. After Microsoft's browser market share went to shit, they then started making Edge the default, and gradually began making it more and more difficult to change it. They

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      It not only got them sued, they got punished and had to give users a choice between several browsers on installation. Sadly, nothing happened when they dropped that choice silently later on.

      Guess it is time to fine them, say, 1B and require that choice on installation again.

  • It's Microsoft being Microsoft... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @01:13PM (#61981969)
    If you had been under a mistaken impression that Microsoft had changed from the malicious arrogance of the 1990's and 2000's, then you've been in a dream world. Microsoft knows it has a lock-hold on the desktop PC world, especially in the lucrative enterprise market. So why should Microsoft even try to give the impression it cares about what Windows users think?

    .
    Just wait for the forced migration of desktops to the cloud. My guess is that it is coming sooner than later...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Armonk ( 5413686 )

      If you had been under a mistaken impression that Microsoft had changed from the malicious arrogance of the 1990's and 2000's, then you've been in a dream world. Microsoft knows it has a lock-hold on the desktop PC world, especially in the lucrative enterprise market. So why should Microsoft even try to give the impression it cares about what Windows users think?

      . Just wait for the forced migration of desktops to the cloud. My guess is that it is coming sooner than later...

      very likely... and I wouldnt be surprised if a pro version could also end up needing some kind of subscription to stay activated... I would think that Apples 'scanning' functionality in ios would also make its way to Windows 11 at some point.

    • Who cares ? really ? (Score:2, Redundant)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Mirosoft. Who cares ? really ?

    • Every software vendor who develops for Windows should test their products under WINE. To show them why they should, we, the power users, should ask vendors whether their product works under WINE.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by vbdasc ( 146051 )

        In my company we use an application that absolutely can't run under WINE, and not because of developers' laziness or unawareness of WINE, but due to WINE's technical deficiencies. (in our particular case, WINE's lack of support for DOS/Windows' file locking/sharing APIs)

    • There was a real feeling of employees of real change when Satya became CEO.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      MS has been shitting on the user all along. They never changed. Anti-competitive, 2nd rated technology (at best), crap UI, crap reliability, crap security, crap performance, everything closed, way more obscure mechanisms than Unix ever had, etc.

      If the users and corporate deciders were a bit less stupid, this company would have ceased to exist a long time ago.

  • Simply don't use Windows (Score:4, Interesting)

    by zaax ( 637433 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @01:21PM (#61981995)
    For this very reason haven't used windows for decades, even though Ubuntu can some times be a pain, its worth it to stop M$ watching

    • Re:Simply don't use Windows (Score:5, Informative)

      by krray ( 605395 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @01:29PM (#61982031)

      That threw me for second [decades]. It's been decades for me too - gave up on Microsoft roughly in 2000 w/ the games they were playing. It's been two decades and my business system(s) run more reliably and it's been a whole lot cheaper not paying Microsoft "licensing". They are a multi-billion dollar joke of a company.

      • I mark my full switch to Mandrake Linux, no dual booting, by the end of mainstream support for Windows 98. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_98 [wikipedia.org]
        I had already experienced Microsoft's activation requirements with Office XP. About a month after installing Office XP, I upgraded my hard drive, I did a fresh install of Windows 98 and Office XP. BAM, this time I now had to call Microsoft for the privilege of activating Office XP.
        I knew this would be a constant reminder that Microsoft products weren't owned,

        • >"Mandrake Linux may not be around any more but my preference for not Windows remains valid. "

          It does, in the form of Mageia Linux. (Which is what I use for my main desktop; before that, it was, indeed, Mandrake).

          >"I mark my full switch to Mandrake Linux, no dual booting, by the end of mainstream support for Windows 98"

          I never used MS-Windows (or MacOS) on my home machines :) And that goes all the way back to 1982 or so.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by waspleg ( 316038 )

      I'll just leave this here. [gnu.org]

      • Thank you for this, I have been doing web searches to try and follow up. It looks like this feature has been disabled by default for a long time, but what has me scratching my head is: how do I enable it? I have been looking for up-to-date information on this telling me what the feature is called and how to enable it, but so far my searches all lead me back to the old articles that are no longer relevant.

        And anyway, in my use of Ubuntu 20.04, I have never once seen an ad anywhere. If Ubuntu is supposedly

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Same. I got macOS my PC and only use Windows for gaming. Which will also not be for too much longer with Linux Gaming making solid progress. Hackintosh these days is a whole lot simpler than before. OpenCore & the Dortania guide makes it a breeze on most machines.
    • When I switched away from Windows (to Ubuntu) the first thing I noticed was the lack of distractions, you know, the popups & notifications by Windows telling you it just did something. It feels a bit like bringing a 5 year-old to work who really loves to tell everyone around him what he's just noticed & what's just happened. Then there's the updates that change your settings & defaults. No wonder there are people who try to delay updates as long as possible! With Ubuntu, I can just get on with m

    • Ubuntu is the Windows of Linux though. If you want something that isn't as much of an intrusive hassle, there are better distros available.

      • Can you provide more details about what's bad about Ubuntu, and how other distros improve on that?

        I used Fedora for a while, and applying updates always brought risk of breaking something that previously worked. Applying major updates even more so, one time ruining my PC and requiring a fresh from-scratch install to get things working.

        When I switched to Ubuntu, everything just worked. Not once has an update broken something that previously worked (for me). Especially and relevantly, my NVIDIA graphics dr

        • A very long time ago (12.04 or possibly 14.04 or 16.04) Ubuntu had the "unmitigated gall" of installing "spyware" on your install.
          This terrible thing(tm) was basically a switch that did your desktop search not only locally but also online, and IIRC sent results back to...somewhere.
          It was easily turned off and removed in the next LTS, but I guess that smacked too much of MS's tactics, and they became the pariah for many years among the *nix diehards.
          Also, Ubuntu is successful, and I guess that's fun to hate

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      So you haven't used Windows in decades because you knew back then that Microsoft was going to release Windows 11 and force Edge to handle system URL calls? Wow, that is some serious precognition you have there. Does it extend to other things? If it does could you send me the lottery numbers for next weeks draw?

      8^)

      • ...because you knew back then that Microsoft was going to release Windows 11...

        He knew it because, like many of us back then, he knew Microsoft. It was painfully obvious that Windows was headed towards a rental model, even back in the later 1990's. In fact, it started as a tongue-in-cheek joke that Windows would eventually come with a coin slot, and users would be required to frequently insert quarters to retain temporary access to their data. The only question involved timing. The results were (and are) inevitable.

        That Microsoft's greed and sadism know no boundaries were two of the

    • For this very reason haven't used windows for decades, even though Ubuntu can some times be a pain, its worth it to stop M$ watching

      You somehow think you are free from being observed because you don't use MS windows?

  • Remember (Score:4, Funny)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @01:25PM (#61982007)
    Windows 11 turns your computer into a giant phone. It is not a PC OS.

  • Sometimes I do wonder about business decisions (Score:3)

    by scamper_22 ( 1073470 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @01:25PM (#61982009)

    There are times I do wonder what about business decisions.
    Even from a business perspective, this is plain silly.

    Let's take some 'reasonable' business cases where microsoft would want to have those edge:// links only use Microsoft edge
    1. Quality assurance. They want the link microsoft uses within the OS to always work and they can assure that by QA using edge
    2. Ads integration. They want ad money to flow through edge

    You can definitely get *most* users to use edge by just making the defaults point to edge.

    But why annoy power users? You know power users are just going to be viciously annoyed at this. Anecdotally, I'm a power user, and I don't bother really changing windows too much. I probably wouldn't change the associations for edge:// stuff. If I'm not doing it, *most* regular users aren't going to do it either. So they get most of what they want.

    Even from a selfish business perspective, now they have annoyed power users, increased the chance of various anti-trust mechanisms... and for what?

    I can't answer that. Ego maybe?

  • Disclaimer: I'm not a Windows 11 fan.

    That being said, isn't it not the case that when you install and run Chrome (and Firefox, IIRC) that you are given an option to make it your default browser, right from within the app? It's clear as day. I will grant that, if you choose to go into the system settings directly and try to adjust default applications it is confusing for the laypeople. But if you don't know how to click "Yes" when asked by Chrome to make *it* your default browser, when you want it to be

  • Good luck getting people to upgrade to Win 11 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bubblyceiling ( 7940768 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @02:12PM (#61982131)
    Forced ads and forced apps will ensure it never gets on my machine

    • The most insidious of all, Windows 11 Home has no local account. You have to have a Microsoft account to install and use it.

      I used Ubuntu at home regularly for about a decade. Instead of getting better, it seemed to get worse. However, I did like it and I stuck with it.

      Then my job involved Visual Studio, which I do like, and I will admit that Windows 10 is fairly smooth. I hate to say it, but Windows 10 isn't too bad. So of course MS has to totally screw it up.

      It seems they get off on screwing things up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      That happened in W10 too. Many people still upgraded to use it for Windows. :P

  • Anyone surprised?

    The most annoying thing is that these kinds of moves undermine any actual decency that parts of big tech companies do - and they absolutely, for the most part, have divisions that are "for the good".
    Hell, Microsoft have been lauded for their turn-around approach to FOSS and adherence to standards, but that's been driven by a few divisions of Microsoft.

    It's clear, in any mega-corporate environment with many thousands of employees, the bean-counters always win over - the sleezy ways to rake i

  • I mean, back when IE6 ruled the world like a crackpot dictator with a really weird taste in fashion and putting the Ministry of Silly Walks in charge of locomotion, the idea was that this way they can sell their IIS because it was (more) compatible with that catastrophe. But last I checked Edge is basically Chrome with a few tidbits attached, or did that change again?

    What's in it for MS?

    • Restarting the process of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

      Edge is basically Chrome with a few tidbits attached

      for now

    • >"I mean, back when IE6 ruled the world like a crackpot dictator with a really weird taste in fashion and putting the Ministry of Silly Walks in charge of locomotion, the idea was that this way they can sell their IIS because it was (more) compatible with that catastrophe. But last I checked Edge is basically Chrome with a few tidbits attached, or did that change again?"

      Chrome *is* the new IE. And yes, Edge is Chrom*. Chrom* is controlled by Google. It is not a community-driven project and as such we

      • Let me rephrase that: What's MS interest in handing control over the browser market to what is essentially a competitor?

        • >"Let me rephrase that: What's MS interest in handing control over the browser market to what is essentially a competitor?"

          It is a double whammy.

          They have control over part of the browser- the part that can collect data on you. But not the base part that dictates compatibility and protocols, which is another near-monopoly by a competitor. So it is kinda the worst of both worlds for the user.

  • ... Microsoft moving to make Windows 11 behave even more maliciously towards its users and browser rivals? That I have a hard time with.

    Mr. Thurrott, the photo of you which accompanies your article suggests that you are far too old to believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or a Microsoft that's anything other than psychopathic and malignantly self-serving.

  • Are there researchers who block everything unless they can canopener it and see what is in there? Especially stuff going to Microsoft?

  • I do NOT wish to use your fucking browser.

    Ergo

    Stop trying to make me fucking use your fucking browser!!!

  • I'm forced to ask why Microsoft would care whether or not people use their browser. It's not like they're selling Edge. So this has to mean that Microsoft is somehow tracking users' activity and collecting data to sell it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      If you use Chrome, then you are asked to log into google, you are steered toward google search, google mail/chat, google docs and google drive are also 'logical' choices if you live in Chrome and by extension Google's world.

      When using microsoft software, you get steered/nagged to do onedrive, office365/teams, and using a microsoft account as your de-facto online identity.

      Microsoft doesn't care about the browser as an end in and of itself, but they want to do what they can to deny Google using Chrome to prom

  • None of my systems are allowed to -- I mean capable of -- of running Windows 11 (according to MS), so I'm safe. When Windows 10 support expires in Oct 2025, I'll (finally) make the switch to using my Linux systems full-time for everything.

  • Windows inherently sucks. Either stop using it or confine it into a VM to use for rare specialty apps or get over the fact you expressly consented for Redmond to do as it will to THEIR OS.

    Windows does not belong to you. It never will. Stop wanting that because you cannot have it.

    You chose software slavery for some trifling nonsense like games when you should hate slavery more than you crave toys.

  • Making changing the default browser for user browsing difficult was definitely a sh*t move on Microsoft's part.

    However, I'm more neutral about not allowing redirection of OS level web access to a program other than Edge. Certainly, Firefox and Chrome aren't going to do anything to those calls that would compromise them, but if some other browser is inserted in that is under the control of a bad actor, then it could be a security problem.

  • They should have been been ruled a monopoly many years ago.

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