A sizzling potato: Microsoft’s choice to make switching from Edge to a different browser simpler in Windows 11 might have been welcomed by customers, however rival browser firms say it would not go far sufficient and ought to be made obtainable to everybody, not simply the extra tech-savvy varieties.
One of the problems folks had with Windows 11 at launch was that Microsoft gave the impression to be as much as its previous methods once more in the case of forcing folks onto default browser Edge. Installing a brand new browser and opening a hyperlink gave a single probability to decide to that browser with a checkbox, however lacking it meant manually altering the default approach of opening a number of internet-related file varieties, together with .html, .htm, .mhtml, .pdf, and protocols like HTTP and HTTPS.
Microsoft took a number of flak from customers and internet firms alike over this course of, and it will definitely introduced again the standard, one-click methodology of adjusting the default browser—by way of an optionally available set of Windows 11 cumulative updates (KB5011563).
But it appears the change hasn’t appeased rival browser makers. “This ought to apply to all customers, not simply those who’re technically competent sufficient to understand that they should set up an optionally available replace, and know easy methods to truly achieve this. It ought to be put in for all customers,” Vivaldi boss Jon von Tetzchner advised The Register.
“While they’ve made an try, the truth that it has been performed the way in which it has results in the idea that it is just being performed to keep away from being prosecuted for anticompetitive conduct, to not truly resolve the underlying drawback.”
Tetzchner concluded with a vaguely threatening, “They [Microsoft] proceed to attempt to make it tougher to change to and use different browsers. We sit up for the EU following up on this malpractice.”
Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, was equally unimpressed by the Redmond agency. “People ought to have the power to easily and simply set defaults and all working programs ought to provide official developer help for default standing.”
“In apply, we might wish to additionally see progress on decreasing the variety of steps required to set a brand new browser as default, and on opening and making APIs obtainable for apps to set default that different Microsoft purposes use.”
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share
For all of the criticism Microsoft has confronted over its techniques for selling Edge, it’s now the second hottest browser on desktops after pushing Safari off the quantity two slot final month with a 9.5% share. Research agency Statcounter has Firefox with a 7.5% slice of the pie, and Vivaldi would not have sufficient customers to make the chart.
