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EU Windows

The EU Will Finally Free Windows Users From Bing (theverge.com) 67

Posted by BeauHD from the following-the-rules-and-regulations dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Microsoft will soon let Windows 11 users in the European Economic Area (EEA) disable its Bing web search, remove Microsoft Edge, and even add custom web search providers -- including Google if it's willing to build one -- into its Windows Search interface. All of these Windows 11 changes are part of key tweaks that Microsoft has to make to its operating system to comply with the European Commission's Digital Markets Act, which comes into effect in March 2024. Microsoft will be required to meet a slew of interoperability and competition rules, including allowing users "to easily un-install pre-installed apps or change default settings on operating systems, virtual assistants, or web browsers that steer them to the products and services of the gatekeeper and provide choice screens for key services."

Alongside clearly marking which apps are system components in Windows 11, Microsoft is also responding by adding the ability to uninstall the following apps: Camera, Cortana, Web Search from Microsoft Bing in the EEA, Microsoft Edge in the EEA, and Photos. Only Windows 11 users in the EEA will be able to fully remove Microsoft Edge and the Bing-powered web search from Windows Search. Microsoft could easily extend this to all Windows 11 users, but it's limiting this extra functionality to EEA markets to comply with the rules.

In EEA markets -- which includes EU countries and also Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway -- Windows 11 users will also get access to new interoperability features for feeds in the Windows Widgets board and web search in Windows Search. This will allow search providers like Google to extend the main Windows Search interface with their own custom web searches. Microsoft will allow EEA machines to remove the Bing results, so Google could provide its own search results here and effectively become the default if a user has uninstalled Bing. "If the user has more than one search provider installed, Windows Search will show the last one used when opened," explains Aaron Grady, partner group product manager for Windows, in a statement to The Verge.
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The EU Will Finally Free Windows Users From Bing More

The EU Will Finally Free Windows Users From Bing

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  • Bye-Bye Bing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Press2ToContinue ( 2424598 ) on Thursday November 16, 2023 @05:09PM (#64010757)
    Breaking News: Microsoft, in a startling display of compliance rarely seen since the Y2K panic, has decided to let European Windows 11 users escape the loving embrace of Bing and Edge. It's like finding out the 'Escape' key on your keyboard finally works after being just for show all these years.

    Remember when Microsoft injected pop-up ads for Bing straight into Windows, creating a user experience as smooth as sandpaper pants? Well, thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act, they've hit the 'Undo' button faster than a programmer spotting a semicolon in Python code. They're even letting users open links in their default browser, a concept so startling, it could make the recycle bin actually recycle.

    But don't get too excited if you're outside the EU. Your Windows experience will remain as ad-infested as a free mobile game, unless you're a fan of diving into the dark corners of GitHub for tools like MSEdgeRedirect - the digital equivalent of sticking a piece of gum on a leaky dam.

    It's a classic tale of David and Goliath, if David was a multi-billion-dollar corporation and Goliath was... another multi-billion-dollar corporation, but with more EU regulations. Apple must be watching from the sidelines, nervously fiddling with their proprietary browser engines, wondering if they're next on the EU's 'naughty list'.

    So, here's to the EU, for giving us a glimpse of a world where 'choice' isn't just a menu option we accidentally click on. And to Microsoft, for finally understanding that 'user preference' isn't a myth like Bigfoot or a printer that works on the first try.

    • Re:Bye-Bye Bing (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday November 16, 2023 @05:30PM (#64010819)

      Microsoft complies because the EU isn't scared to issue fines.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      The interesting part is that Microsoft claimed in the past that Edge is a critical component of windows 11, which is why so many internal links are opened with it even when it's not a default browser.

      I guess it's not going to be that any more.

      Oh and you can probably install "EEA version" by just setting your region to one of the nations within EEA during install, just like you can avoid pretty much all bloatware installation by choose "world" as you location now. Almost almost current win 11 bloatware is re

      • The interesting part is that Microsoft claimed in the past that Edge is a critical component of windows 11

        No you're conflating two issues. Only the icon for the browser and the ability to open the app you know as "Edge" is being removed. The underlying components of Edge will remain in Windows including WebEdgeView which very much is a critical component of windows 11 seeing how it's responsible for rendering a large part of the GUI and most of the modern apps.

        This is more like Android allowing you to "remove" apps that are baked in as part of the read only image by hiding the icon in the app launcher.

        which is why so many internal links are opened with it even when it's not a default browser.

        No that's

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          If true, that's unfortunate.

          I would hope that EU forces them to do away with exclusivity, i.e. web components could be opened in any chromium based browser that you choose to install.

          But yes, I can see how that would be a compatibility nightmare.

          That said, they're also removing shit like Cortana, which we know for sure is removable because you can in fact remove it right now while keeping the OS functional. There are even installers that come with it completely removed from the installer ISO.

          • Ultimately it will have to. If Edge is removed as a user facing browser MS will have to provide an option to set another browser as the URL handler. At present I believe (not sure, haven't looked since last year) the difference is that clicking a link from a Windows system component launches a URL: "edge://blah" instead of "https://blah" There are programs you can use to redirect edge:// but there wasn't a windows setting.

            I thought MS made an announcement earlier this year that this will change too, but hon

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

              "Shit like" refers to a whole package of these extra features. There are custom windows ISO builders that have packaged windows without Cortana back when microsoft insisted that Cortana was the latest and greatest thing that will be present in all computers in a few years time and was getting integrated into everything very aggressively.

              On the "edge" question though, I wonder if it would be fully functional to just have OS wide setting that translated all edge:// to http(s):// before it's actually processed

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          As long as I can relegate Edge to being only ever opened at my command, and all the other BS disabled to the point where it never runs and it's just a bit of disk space being taken up, I'm fine with that.

          I'll keep Edge around as a "clean" browser. Occasionally I can't get certain websites I need to work, mainly airlines it seems, due to privacy and ad blocking in my main browsers. Edge seems as good as any for those situations, with everything declined and it set to delete everything when I close it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dracos ( 107777 )

        Oh and you can probably install "EEA version" by just setting your region to one of the nations within EEA during install

        Approximately .02 milliseconds after these changes appear on a Windows release channel, someone doing $diety's work will release a registry hack utility to perform the necessary changes.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Problem being that modern windows already ignores a lot of registry changes if version doesn't match. For example telemetry disabling via group policy still requires you to run commands that fool OS into thinking it's sorta kinda enterprise edition before they will work properly.

    • I've been more partial to burlap undies

  • Remember when you could install Alta Vista to search your hard drive? EU wants it back!

  • Great! Now when will the EU release Google's stranglehold on ChromeOS and let me uninstall Chrome on there?

    • Never, ChromeOS doesn't meet the threshold for the Digital Markets Act. I.e. The EU are saying it's *your* fault for *choosing* to run it.

  • All this is wonderful and all but ALL telemetry to the mothership needs to be eliminated.

  • Remember Browser choice? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Thursday November 16, 2023 @05:46PM (#64010863) Journal

    Remember when Microsoft "accidentally" dropped the browser choice screen on installs?

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/... [zdnet.com]

    How long before Microsoft "accidentally" removes this option?

    • I only remember that Microsoft was convicted for anti competitive behaviour, forced to offer that choice, and then removed the choice without being punished.

      • There was nothing to punish them for. The settlement agreement from the onset was time limited and expired on the 31st December 2014. Microsoft literally had sunset code in this from day 1.

        In 2011 a Windows 7 Service Pack "bug" caused the browser choice screen to not display for 14 months. Microsoft paid a fine of EUR 561million for that "bug" which sounds like a punishment to me.

    • Hi. If you need to develop a website. So I advise you to contact a marketing company that deals with ui/ux design and development services https://globaledgemarkets.com/... [globaledgemarkets.com] . Specialists best know how to develop a website so that it attracts the attention of users and brings significant marketing profits. So I'm sure this company will help you.

  • Good job! Now free advertisers (Score:3)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Thursday November 16, 2023 @06:28PM (#64010953)
    from google's grip on digital ads
  • I always thought that we were supposed to work for the Windows OS! OMG! Is Apple next?

  • Why were they allowed to do basically the same thing that was determined to be illegal back in the early Internet Explorer days?
    Isn't the only difference the Windows version number, IE is now called Edge and MSN is called Bing?

    • Expectations. In the early days it was expected that a user chooses their browser as none was provided with the OS right until MS changed that. It's not 1995 anymore. These days you expect your OS to simply be able to open a website and would consider any OS that didn't ship with a default browser as defective.

  • So when will EU free iPhone users from the Safari browser?

  • Microsoft lets Windows, Deja Vu, 20 years later (Score:3)

    by bsdetector101 ( 6345122 ) on Friday November 17, 2023 @06:04AM (#64011701)
    EU forces Microsoft to let Windows users choose their own browser and search engine , Deja Vu, 20+ years later.....Been there, done that ! Microsoft doesn't learn ! History repeats itself !
  • That's really ridiculous. Why doesn't Android, MacOS, iOS or even linux have to do that? They all come with preinstalled browsers and search engines.

    • Android already does let the user do this.
      iOS is subject to a current DMA case that is ongoing (Hint: Apple and Microsoft are different companies)
      MacOS isn't popular enough to qualify as a Gatekeeper in the DMA.
      Linux is not even remotely popular enough in the deepest depths of neckbeard's wet dream to qualify as a Gatekeeper in the DMA.

  • Even if they're pre-installed, nobody was ever forced to use either one.
    In fact it is a good idea to have a browser that you never use sitting around to troubleshoot problems with the browsers you do use.
    I'll even use Bing on occasion to compare to what other search engines provide

    • Even if they're pre-installed, nobody was ever forced to use either one.

      False. There are many parts of the OS / web interaction in Windows 11 that outright ignore your browser choice and always open in Edge. Microsoft even has a dedicated URL for this within windows components: "Edge://"

      In fact it is a good idea to have a browser that you never use sitting around to troubleshoot problems with the browsers you do use.

      Let the user make that choice.

  • Seriously. I'll search for apps, but for general search that thing is just a big "nope!"
  • Well, at least someone gets freedom from Teh Bing. Hopefully the rest of the world will get freedom from it, too. One day...

  • Now if we could only get the EU to finally free Windows users from Windows!

    That would throw a wrench into the plans of all those fuckers who are doing their best to turn our computers into dumb terminals that require a full-time internet connection and a paid-up subscription to be usable. Just imagine! Autonomous operating systems whose updates and functioning aren't at the whim of would-be slave owners!

    Note that although I'd love for Linux to be that alternative, I'd happily settle for a Windows ecosystem

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