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Microsoft Begins Turning Off uBlock Origin, Other Extensions In Edge (neowin.net) 64

Posted by BeauHD from the it's-happening dept.
Microsoft Edge is following Chrome's lead by disabling uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2-based extensions in its browser. Neowin reports: The latest Edge Canary version started disabling Manifest V2-based extensions with the following message: "This extension is no longer supported. Microsoft Edge recommends that you remove it." Although the browser turns off old extensions without asking, you can still make them work by clicking "Manage extension" and toggling it back (you will have to acknowledge another prompt).

Google started phasing out Manifest V2 extensions in June 2024, and it has a clear roadmap for the process. Microsoft's documentation, however, still says "TBD," so the exact dates are not known yet. This leads to some speculating about the situation being one of "unexpected changes" coming from Chromium. Either way, sooner or later, Microsoft will ditch MV2-based extensions, so get ready as we wait for Microsoft to shine some light on its plans.

Another thing worth noting is that the change does not appear to be affecting Edge's stable release or Beta/Dev Channels. For now, only Canary versions disable uBlock Origin and other MV2 extensions, leaving users a way to toggle them back on. Also, the uBlock Origin is still available in the Edge Add-ons store, which recently received a big update.

Microsoft Begins Turning Off uBlock Origin, Other Extensions In Edge More | Reply

Microsoft Begins Turning Off uBlock Origin, Other Extensions In Edge

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  • When I updated Chrome I started seeing adds and when I checked, Chrome had turned off uBlock Origin saying it was not supported. You just have to turn it back on in the extensions and its all ok, until the next update.

  • Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)

    by systemd-anonymousd ( 6652324 ) on Friday February 28, 2025 @07:57PM (#65202637)

    Won't someone please think of Edge's user?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I use Edge, because it seems to block YouTube ads far more reliably than Firefox does, for whatever reason. But that's all I really use it for.

      I don't know why, I guess it updates extensions far more often than Firefox so when YouTube breaks it Edge gets the updated version?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Vivaldi does a good job of blocking YouTube ads as well, and for Twitch, I did not even know they had on-stream ads until recently when it got discuses in a stream. Killed any desire to ever subscribe there though. I rather support people on Patreon.

      • Firefox is made for users. Ublock on Firefox works fine and does a very good job including for Youtube, Chrome based browser (including edge) decided to remove v2 extension so it will be impossible for extension like ublock to work like they do today with v3.

  • automatically disabling extensions is "criminal" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rta ( 559125 ) on Friday February 28, 2025 @08:02PM (#65202647)

    Not going to jump into the whole v2 vs v3 thing here, but the logic of ever automatically starting up a browser without its security extensions, or a computer w/o it's VPN or firewall, if so configured, is bizarre to me. It's a total failure of failsafe principles of engineering.

    I've run into this with Ghostery when an update of he plugin itself turned off most of its own blocking ... silently and w/o warning (about 6mo - 1 yr ago when the update the Chrome / Edge version to be compatible with v3 ). Also an issue with e.g. the GoogleFi VPN on android. sometimes it'll silently fail, or just won't start after phone reboot and when that happens everything works just as before, but not over VPN.

    Like... Both of these products ( and obviously Edge as well) are designed and run by people who, i assume, clearly understand that in computing security that just turns itself off randomly say 0.5% of the time is almost as bad as it not existing at all... and yet the whole ecosystem seems basically fine with it.

    (to me this is in the same space as the existence of Stripe (the banking API thing). Basically according to normal understanding/ application of tenets of banking security, Stripe is practically an illegal hacking service. And yet it is a $91B company... and practically underlies all of fintech that in any way integrates with bank accounts and everyone's just fine with it.)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Sounds like you think you own your computer and software. Tch tch. You'll soon learn, and will be assimilated.

      (that's all sarcasm for you who don't grasp sarcasm)

      • Those of us who are not sucking on Microsoft's dick, and using an OS that doesn't abuse its users, namely Linux, DO OWN our computers... There is a growing number of us out here..

    • Could you elaborate on the Stripe thing? I sniffed around Stripe a few years ago and walked away because the terms of service were too onerous. They are basically a white label for Amazon imho. Yeah, I don't do any business with Amazon either for same reasons.. but I am curious about what you're saying.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rta ( 559125 )

        ok. so...as of some time in 2021 it looks like Stripe is using Oauth now to log into banks systems' which is relatively sane.

        I had last looked at it before they made this switch and then it was like so:
        US banks don't support any sort of API access to your bank account information. So the only way to have a program do something as you using your bank account ( e.g. checking your balance or downloading transaction data) is to screen scrape their online banking app as you.

        Stripe provides this as a service

        • Ok, very interesting, I see what you're saying. Don't tell the Chinese that they can now conveniently hack one site and get the login credentials for dozens of other sites. (per customer). Thanks for the insight.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Software will get engineering principles right after it gets liability. Before that, any asshole and incompetent can do whatever crap they like doing.

  • Gee now, isn't that just too bad, I was just about to start using Edge, but if they've made it unusable...

    What's with you stupid pimps thinking you have the right to control what we have in our homes? Grow some fucking balls you absolutely terrible people

  • Alternatives... (Score:5, Informative)

    by mattb47 ( 85083 ) on Friday February 28, 2025 @08:49PM (#65202747)

    Move to Brave -- since it will continue to support v2 extensions

    Or move to Firefox / Waterfox / LibreWolf / PaleMoon / etc. -- any Firefox-derived browser.

    I'm assuming there will likely be a few other Chromium forks out there that will continue to support v2 extensions.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's hard to get past Brave's previous associated with a crypto scam. Mozilla seems to have sold out.

      LibreWolf seems to be the best option at the moment, but the number of choices is shrinking rapidly.

  • If they turned off you block origin I wouldn't even notice.
    My employer's intranet sites should not have spam that needs to be blocked

    I have never met anyone who uses Edge for surfing public websites

    • ublock*
      Stupid voice to text

    • >"My employer's intranet sites should not have spam that needs to be blocked"

      Nor should the sites require using Edge.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        Sure, but in practice some do. My employer's timesheet webapp has rendering problems on Safari. SharePoint's default document link arbitrarily wants to open Office files in desktop Office for Edge but in web Office for Firefox (it takes additional clicks to open in desktop Office in Firefox, so it's not a question of capability). Some homegrown PKI thing at my workplace uses VBscript so it only worked with Internet Exploder. Web developers make mistakes and stupid choices very often, but employers gener

  • Until Microsoft's documentation on MV3 changes, I wouldn't take this DEV build as being set in stone.

    I don't see Microsoft flushing away it's only good chance to pull users from Chrome when the Ublockalypse happens in Google land. They know as soon as that happens there's going to be a mass exodus of Chrome users to other browsers, and they want to be the one people and businesses flock to since they're based on chromium for maximum compatibility and they also make it easy to Sync your Google account Chrome

  • Yet another reason to use Firefox.

  • Not great, not terrible (Score:5, Informative)

    by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Saturday March 01, 2025 @12:01AM (#65202961)

    In Chrome, I've been migrating to MV3 alternatives to the remaining MV2 extensions that I had in preparation for the cutoff. I switched from uBlock Origin to uBlock Lite, and honestly, after setting the default to "complete", I haven't really noticed any difference from uBlock Origin. I know that it's not getting 100% of the rules, but it's good enough that the vast majority of people won't notice the difference. It does mean that the handful of custom rules that I had added are gone, but none of them were critical, and they could probably be replaced with Tampermonkey scripts if I was desperate.

    • You are kidding? I got hit with the automatic disablement last week and tried UO lite and everywhere was ads. It could not disable the ones on this page.

      I re-enabled my beloved uMatrix and once I can no longer do that, Brave is now installed and will probably replace Chrome once MV2 is actually completely dead.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Guspaz ( 556486 )

        Did you set uBlock Lite to "complete" mode? Either as the default, or on a per-site basis? It's not very effective on the default "basic" mode. Running it in "optimal" or "complete" mode appears to block all ads on Slashdot.

  • Weird that advertising companies... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ebunga ( 95613 ) on Saturday March 01, 2025 @02:11AM (#65203037)

    Are so gung-ho in killing off adblockers in their web browsers. Surely there's no conflict of interest here and this is just a coincidence and is really totally about security, for real.

  • they are making users wait forever to post

    another evil corporation fu /.

  • When is the final cut off for uBlock Origin? My Chrome is updated (v133) and my uBlock Origin is still working and I haven't received any kind of warning that it will be eliminated. I have uBlock Lite installed (but deactivated) for when it does happen. But for now, I'm still enjoying Origin functionality. I stick with Chrome because of the sync with my phone, tablet, etc. for bookmarks, history, and passwords. I don't trust third-party password managers, they've all been compromised at some point, but

  • I was on firefox for a while but they don't support new standards such as webgpu.
    After moving to Opera a while back (which is chromium based) it all seems fine

  • I still see popups that try to execute code. What's worse is sites anti-ad checks rely on these, so they fail even if you don't have adblock but are trying to just block code execution.

    When can we start suing the ad networks? If they and the browser manufacturers are going to force us in to this; then someone needs to take some responsibility for the content being served. Why should ad networks get a different set of rule than most webhosts. If you're hosting malicious content, you get taken offline.

  • I know it's strange. Why stick with Firefox when browsers like Edge and Chrome are supposedly better?! I do not want ads. I don't care what your terms are and I don't care what the service is I will always strive for an ad free environment. It's so odd that companies think that just because I browse to their site they can just shove junk at me. Yes yes without ads no one can make money everyone is poor and so on...yet somehow life goes on.

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