Microsoft Windows starts telling users off if they try to download Google’s Chrome browser

[nlinecomputers]

Really? Because the Dell Optiplex on my bench running Windows 11 had its default browser change via the same default apps setting I've been using for years.

Microsoft is making it harder to switch default browsers in Windows 11

Windows 11 ignores browser defaults and makes it harder to switch.

www.theverge.com

Try and change it to Firefox or Brave. On upgrade you can set it but if on a fresh install you will have more work.

 

[nlinecomputers]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1427971299813597193

. Video example in this tweet.

 

[phaZed]

@nlinecomputers Looks like they're changing their minds on that.

Microsoft backtracks on Windows 11’s controversial default browser changes

There’s now a button to easily switch default browsers.

www.theverge.com

 

[britechguy]

Looks like they're changing their minds on that.

I'm not at all shocked. Microsoft has made plenty of bone-headed decisions over the years, but when end user sentiment is promptly and loudly against, the "simple to change" ones often promptly get changed.

This falls into the, "What were they thinking?!!," category.

I only wish the end user outcry had been equal when they did the forced marriage between Cortana and the Bing search engine. That could have been reversed, too.

 

[Sky-Knight]

So MS changed it so that instead of swapping a single setting, you have to go manually change all the file associations...

Whatever, that's the way it USED TO BE, and the browsers would just have to register for each extension one at at time. Then we move forward in time, now apps cannot actually change important extensions the user has to do that... which is great for security reasons but going back to that for the multitude of formats attached to a web browser is... well boneheaded is a good word.

And, shockingly when pressed on it they made the rational call to change the behavior because it was stupid.

Occam's Razor strikes again...

 

[HCHTech]

Every time a client has difficulty logging in to a website they are told by their bank, building society, ISP, Telco whatever - to "use Google Chrome."

I had a security camera installer at one of my clients today, and I was involved remotely, reserving a static IP in the firewall, doing some routing, etc. The Hikvision app to view the cameras wasn't working on one computer, and he started to tell me that the browser access "just didn't work well in Firefox or Chrome, and we should try Internet Ex......." I cut him off and spent a full minute ranting about that shouldn't even be a suggestion in this day and age and how vendors should be ashamed of themselves even mentioning that as a possibility. It was Friday afternoon and I have already taken my share of BS this week - haha. He decided to work on making the app function instead. Somehow, I doubt I changed his mind...

 

[britechguy]

And since IE is going away, really, in 2022 . . .

 

[frase]

Maybe by 'of sorts' you mean by accident, because their intention is not to do users any favours. They 'encourage' the use of Edge because Edge 'encourages' the use of Bing, and Bing could potentially make them lots of money from ads and data collection à la Google. Maybe they're currently not as bad as Google because they haven't had as much opportunity to collect data!

One thing Google Search has improved over the years is in the area of scam ads. In recent months/years, they have become much better at removing ads that are scams (e.g. fake Microsoft support ads). In the last year or so, I've noticed most customers that come into my shop after being scammed were using Bing or other non-Google search engines. Mostly Bing because it's the default search in Edge, and because Microsoft prompts them to 'reset browser settings' every now and then which makes Edge the default browser and Bing the default search (even if it was changed by me when setting up their PC).

I've recently found this undocumented setting in Edge:

When this is changed from Default to Disabled, it doesn't popup and suggest resetting browser settings anymore. Apparently.

It's found by typing "edge://flags" into the address bar which brings up a page titled 'Experiments' and this:

If you then search for 'recomm' you can find the above setting. User-friendly isn't it

"Be Brave, though live on the Edge!" - MS Marketing paid me...ok I'm outa here-->

 

[GTP]

This!
Has anyone been using Edge's home page? Wowie, tracking in your face!! Visit any where or do anything with Bing from Edge and every possible iterneration (ads, news, vlog, etc.) appears on your home page next time. Don't get me wrong, I like Edge but it makes no effort to show hide its tracking.

I don't remember where or when I read an article where Satya Nadella? said in a public speech that "the presumption of privacy is now gone."

I tend to agree with that.

 

[GTP]

the browser access "just didn't work well in Firefox or Chrome, and we should try Internet Ex......."

Omg!
A client bought a brand new current wireless security cam/door monitor that he tried to set up himself but couldn't get to work.
He called for assistance because the instructions said "you can only use this software with "Internet Explorer!"

He wanted to know how to get Internet Explorer on his PC.

 

[britechguy]

I don't remember where or when I read an article where Satya Nadella? said in a public speech that "the presumption of privacy is now gone."

I tend to agree with that.

As do I. There is no choice involved, either, and in many cases not because of intentional data mining, either.

Most of what was conventionally considered private was indeed that just because it was not easy for others to access public records, even though they were public. Trying to compile a dossier on anyone was a major undertaking, particularly if they'd lived in multiple places. Lots of hours of digging through public records and no information, beyond gossip, available online, either.

Now that most information is available online, and with searching skills that anyone can master pretty quickly, the game has profoundly changed. If you add in social media, where many offer a microscopic view of their daily lives, there's truly no privacy left even if every bit of data mining (which does happen, and makes all of the preceding even worse) were not taking place.

My idea of private is very different than what that meant to my parents' generations and earlier. And we're never, ever going back. The genie is out of the bottle and the internet remembers forever.

 

[Blues]

The worsening of this eroding privacy with data mining is what makes concerns over privacy greater now than they have been and the level to which this data mining is being used to practically invade our daily lives or put them at risk.

 

[britechguy]

The worsening of this eroding privacy with data mining is what makes concerns over privacy greater now than they have been and the level to which this data mining is being used to practically invade our daily lives or put them at risk.

You'll get zero argument on that from me, or virtually anyone who's even somewhat "in the know" about what's going on and what it means from a practical standpoint.

But, many don't, and ignorance is bliss. And even some who do are more than willing to give up that privacy for convenience. To them, what we're concerned about is, indeed, a feature not a bug.

 

[PaulTech]

It's seems like the built-in printing support of Chrome, especially in regards to web based POS systems is one key component of the Google Chrome preference of some users. It used to be that IE11 had a lock but most gov't sites and so on have had to upgrade their systems as that's EOL.