Microsoft is the OG. The other two are just imitators. The only reason Microsoft happens to step carefully. Was a little thing that happened in the late 1990s. That all penalties were largely waived for. But still it frightened them enough to behave better for a short while.
Google has long since surpassed anything MS dreamed of doing.
Edit: to be clear, this article is that they’re blocking programs other than the control panel from changing the default browser.
Meanwhile, in Android, I’ve set Newpipe as the default app for YouTube videos. I have every single url for YouTube set to open in Newpipe. Still opens all YouTube video links in the YouTube app.
So Google is selling license for code and technologies. They’ve shown no ownership of in a competitor’s product? Google is actively funding litigious troll shell corporations who shown no actual harm to harass and drain competitors resources? Google is creating and using secret apis for themselves. Breaking the ones for third parties in order to hold them back?
I’m not saying Google’s good Or anything. Not defending them in any way. But they’ve got a long way to go before they reach Microsoft level. Microsoft is literally the reason why before going public. Google had the motto of don’t be evil.
At least not in the EU, there Windows should even allow you to uninstall EDGE. MS in the EU is way different, less restrictive and more private than MS US.
MS US not only use cookies, it logs even your keystrokes and mouse movements, apart to pass your data to Towerdata and Facebook. Cookies are not the problem if yo use uBO, Cookie Autodelete or similar.
Can’t endorse Gnome enough. I feel like something about it is anti ADHD for me. It optimizes screen size usage. And, the division of tasks into workspaces is glorious. It honestly bothers me a little that it helps me be productive despite myself.
I switched to mint in November, almost everything just works (I mainly use my desktop for gaming). And everything that doesn’t, works after visiting the mint forum or is just a minor inconvenience.
I dunno; ive had trouble trying to internally rewhatsit outgoing broadcast UDP packets to multicast UDP (or even TCP and then back on the other side) packets for use with some 25 year old windows software. So clearly Linux sucks.
Manjaro is amazing, but might have a little steep learning curve should you use it for something very advanced. Also, no .deb’s and .rpm’s for you, but AUR is arguably even more based (don’t rely on it too much though, troubleshooting issues with AUR-sourced apps is an advanced task indeed!)
Other than that, an insanely snappy (thanks, Arch!), beautiful (thank you, presets for various DEs!), almost bleeding-edge and very novice-friendly distribution.
You kidding? That means First party is now a protected method which will absolutely result in the expected outcome like they have done with every “feature” update blocking work arounds.
Is this why Windows has started opening all my chromium apps in edge? They fuck up constantly and it’s really making me want to ditch windows.
If I understood Jack audio as well as I understand Voicemeeter, and if I could get my damn push to talk button working properly in Solaar I’d be done by now.
If anyone has a solution to the edge thing please help.
They aren’t talking about system administrators. They are talking about 3rd party software presenting a privilege escalation prompt (administrator access) and changing your default browser without you knowing about it
This is horrible. I run several different environments of VMware Instant Clone VDIs and use the SetUserFTA to help a users default browser and other file extension defaults to persist for a user from session to session on a non-persistent VDI. Now it’s broken.
I said literally like two days ago “fine then; keep using windows until they take a feature you rely on and all your data is either gone, or trapped in an impenetrably useless shell”
Theres no practical value to being right, but fsmn does it feel good.
Uh, sorry about your shit. If you want to still have your computer in a year; switch to linux
We have 80,000 people that work for my company. That’s not going to happen. Now we have 10,000 VMs running a combination of Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian, and Centos. But our employees choose the OS they want to run on their own work devices whether it be Linux, MacOS, or Windows and no way is everyone is going to Linux, even if that is my own OS of choice. Especially the C-Level and board member types.
We are using Instant Clones. It’s a non-persistent Virtual Desktop.
We want to give our users the choice and then be able to persist those choices. Not force them to use just one option with a GPO that defines what they have to use.
SetUserFTA and Dynamic Environment Manager allowed it until the last Windows CU came along…
We do: Firefox, Chrome, or Edge. That’s not the problem.
The problem is with Microsofts new driver we can’t allow users to set the default browser in their VMware Instant Clone using SetUserFTA via Dynamic Environment Manager.
Posts like these reveal how many reads the article.
This is a good thing done by Microsoft. They make sure that 3rd party software can’t change the default browser without the user knowing.
They will get prompted with the choice screen showing all installed browsers. And when they make their choice, even Edge wouldn’t be able to prey people into clicking a button that makes it the default instead.
So many headline readers. To be honest, 99% of these problems that folks rage about could be resolved with a group policy (local or domain). The problem is, Windows is like 73% of worldwide OS usage, so like it or not, there is a lot of trying to protect the user from themselves. Team Linux can’t fathom that because they come from the perspective that they can build thier experience from the ground up to be exactly as they like. The VAST majority of people don’t want that, they want something that works and they don’t really care what happens behind the curtains. I would wager that 90% of users could care less what browser they use (or would even notice if it changed!) as long as they still had access to their bookmarks.
I would like to share a positive experience from this new driver the article is about. I use notepad++ and setting it as the default was kind of a pain in the butt. It would work sometimes, but not consistently, and often depended on a registry hack or symlink to work. Now with the new interface for default apps, as long as I have the new Windows Notepad app installed when I change the defaults for “open with”, it just works! For all the file extensions, all the time. Honestly it’s a much better experience and it’s ACCESSIBLE to the lay person.
Considering that Edge makes itself the default browser and even PDF reader on its own every few weeks, I don’t trust Microsoft to keep Edge from taking over as default without user input.
No they don’t. At most they just have to detect automatic changes and ask the user to confirm. They have no reason for forcing the user to dig into menus and then also repeatedly override that same choice.
However, this new driver has also rolled out to Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices in the USA that do not have to comply with the DMA act, shedding doubt on this theory.
In principal, the change is good for reasons you mentioned. However microsoft has :
bypassed any default screens in the past, allowing edge to be set default without user input.
has added very annoying screens when changing default applications asking the user multiple times if they are sure.
has added special protocols for applications and set edge as default browser to bypass default application settings in all office applications ( outlook, teams, word, … ).
They just can not be trusted with this, they have proven this in the past…
The “choose the default app” modal has special code that makes it say “HEY BTW EDGE EXISTS CLICK HERE” If the modal is for choosing your default browser. It is absolutely about control.
The dma only speaks about easily changing the default application. It has nothing to do with this.
What the dma did allow was the “complete” uninstall of edge in windows 11.
The only thing that is left behind i noticed is the edge webview component for webview & webview2
I did a fresh install on a family member’s PC yesterday. Tried to change the region in the registry so I could uninstall Edge and it wouldn’t let me. I assume this is related.
But I also dual-booted Linux so they could try it at any time 🙃
Man I hate Microsoft pre installing Edge on these laptops to push their browser. Anyways here is your laptop bro, also I pre installed Linux so I can push it to you.
Meanwhile, if you use Microsoft Teams & Outlook with the Teams add-on installed … and you are wondering why your email links are suddenly opening in Edge instead of your default browser, disable the Teams add-on in Outlook and rage for a moment at the stupidity.
Teams is forcing Edge browser to open links in new Teams and by extension, in Outlook. Setting the default browser to open links within Outlook settings just leads to un-clickable links. The only way to fix it is to disable the Teams Outlook add-on.
Yes, same old Microsoft. Anyone who thinks they have changed in any way since the days of forcing Internet Explorer as the default are sadly and woefully mistaken.
It’s pretty much a program running in OS kernel space to handle specific function calls which need low level system access. Most hardware needs custom drivers to work because they need to interact with those low level OS components, so that’s why they’re mostly associated with hardware.
A lot of antiviruses use custom drivers to intercept and inspect program behavior to look for viruses, etc
I understand that software directly and silently changing the default software can be a security issue. But it’s only because it happens silently. Does Windows allow for showing a system prompt that confirms the change to the user? If not, then that’s just plain ol’ anti-competitive. Especially with how pushy Edge and Bing can be.
I don’t think the goal is to lock you into their browser, since you still can change it through the GUI. It seems to be part of the recent push to block software which changes hidden settings. The end goal being to lock down the OS and prevent users from disabling features MS wants to push onto them.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
Google gets to do this on Android. Apple gets to do this on iOS.
The unfortunate reality is that MS is catching up to the bad apples in bad behaviour.
sdfasdfadsf
Microsoft is the OG. The other two are just imitators. The only reason Microsoft happens to step carefully. Was a little thing that happened in the late 1990s. That all penalties were largely waived for. But still it frightened them enough to behave better for a short while.
Google has long since surpassed anything MS dreamed of doing.
Edit: to be clear, this article is that they’re blocking programs other than the control panel from changing the default browser.
Meanwhile, in Android, I’ve set Newpipe as the default app for YouTube videos. I have every single url for YouTube set to open in Newpipe. Still opens all YouTube video links in the YouTube app.
So Google is selling license for code and technologies. They’ve shown no ownership of in a competitor’s product? Google is actively funding litigious troll shell corporations who shown no actual harm to harass and drain competitors resources? Google is creating and using secret apis for themselves. Breaking the ones for third parties in order to hold them back?
I’m not saying Google’s good Or anything. Not defending them in any way. But they’ve got a long way to go before they reach Microsoft level. Microsoft is literally the reason why before going public. Google had the motto of don’t be evil.
At least not in the EU, there Windows should even allow you to uninstall EDGE. MS in the EU is way different, less restrictive and more private than MS US.
Maybe it’s because websites should ask user before enabling cookies?
MS US not only use cookies, it logs even your keystrokes and mouse movements, apart to pass your data to Towerdata and Facebook. Cookies are not the problem if yo use uBO, Cookie Autodelete or similar.
deleted by creator
Lin…ux?
Linux Linux?
If you want to keep your computer, yeah.
Might be rough, but, like… Windows7 isnt supported anymore.
Okay so KDE was okay 5-10 years ago. Ultimately crawled back to Windoze. What’s in vogue in 2024?
KDE 6 just dropped. Cinnamon is up there as well. And if you think iOS is too cluttered and functional, give Gnome a try.
Can’t endorse Gnome enough. I feel like something about it is anti ADHD for me. It optimizes screen size usage. And, the division of tasks into workspaces is glorious. It honestly bothers me a little that it helps me be productive despite myself.
Okay, you sold it to me (given for free) Should try to approach Gnome again. Currently a KDE user.
removed by mod
I use paperwm, and I think its the greatest user interface ever. Actually makes my odyssey super ultrawide useful
I am glad someone likes it.
It frustrates me to no end.
There is plenty of choices, those are just some of the major ones.
I’m a big fan of Pop OS personally.
Yep, I just switched yesterday.
Literally switched two days ago. Trying mint for now
PopOS uses the same core stuff as mint and is good at graphics drivers, does em automatically.
Haha, me too. I tried opensuse first but switched to mint.
Mint gang rise up!
Switched just a couple of months ago.
I switched to mint in November, almost everything just works (I mainly use my desktop for gaming). And everything that doesn’t, works after visiting the mint forum or is just a minor inconvenience.
I dunno; ive had trouble trying to internally rewhatsit outgoing broadcast UDP packets to multicast UDP (or even TCP and then back on the other side) packets for use with some 25 year old windows software. So clearly Linux sucks.
Manjaro is amazing, but might have a little steep learning curve should you use it for something very advanced. Also, no .deb’s and .rpm’s for you, but AUR is arguably even more based (don’t rely on it too much though, troubleshooting issues with AUR-sourced apps is an advanced task indeed!)
Other than that, an insanely snappy (thanks, Arch!), beautiful (thank you, presets for various DEs!), almost bleeding-edge and very novice-friendly distribution.
[This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
Incomprehensibly stupid, because all they have to do is ask the user to confirm. Forcing through their own default instead of asking is malicious.
You kidding? That means First party is now a protected method which will absolutely result in the expected outcome like they have done with every “feature” update blocking work arounds.
That’s one take, except even the article notes that’s a weak argument.
Shocking. Never expected this behavior from such a helpful and heart warming company like Micro~.sft /s
Is this why Windows has started opening all my chromium apps in edge? They fuck up constantly and it’s really making me want to ditch windows.
If I understood Jack audio as well as I understand Voicemeeter, and if I could get my damn push to talk button working properly in Solaar I’d be done by now.
If anyone has a solution to the edge thing please help.
Presumably one can still set default in settings. I’m not giving up Firefox yet.
deleted by creator
Nowhere in the article does MS say that. It’s presented as an argument, while MS said “no comment”.
Nowhere does MS claim that.
deleted by creator
They say that, but I’ll believe it when I see the implementation.
But why? Is administrators forcing their company’s laptop to use certain browser actually a significant problem before?
deleted by creator
Still doable for corporate-managed devices through GPOs, MS Intune, MECM, etc
They aren’t talking about system administrators. They are talking about 3rd party software presenting a privilege escalation prompt (administrator access) and changing your default browser without you knowing about it
Its more a issue in China where every browser (read malware) would make itself the default and it’s a pain to change it back.
Then just ask the user instead of assuming
Does that mean Teams will finally stop opening links in Edge when that’s not my default browser?
deleted by creator
This is horrible. I run several different environments of VMware Instant Clone VDIs and use the SetUserFTA to help a users default browser and other file extension defaults to persist for a user from session to session on a non-persistent VDI. Now it’s broken.
Thanks a lot Microsoft. 😤
Awesome tool, that one. Not often we use it (and usually inside a virtual application environment), but it’s great to rely on…
I said literally like two days ago “fine then; keep using windows until they take a feature you rely on and all your data is either gone, or trapped in an impenetrably useless shell”
Theres no practical value to being right, but fsmn does it feel good.
Uh, sorry about your shit. If you want to still have your computer in a year; switch to linux
How do you know if someone is a bisexual vegan economics major who uses Linux? They’ve already told you.
How do you know if someone has never eaten a vegetable? They won’t shut the fuck up about vegans. Same for windows fanboys, etc.
We have 80,000 people that work for my company. That’s not going to happen. Now we have 10,000 VMs running a combination of Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian, and Centos. But our employees choose the OS they want to run on their own work devices whether it be Linux, MacOS, or Windows and no way is everyone is going to Linux, even if that is my own OS of choice. Especially the C-Level and board member types.
Well, back up all their shit and have a compatible open source alternative on the table, for the day it suddenly dies.
Why aren’t you using group policy?
How long til that’s deoricated, would you bet?
We are using Instant Clones. It’s a non-persistent Virtual Desktop.
We want to give our users the choice and then be able to persist those choices. Not force them to use just one option with a GPO that defines what they have to use.
SetUserFTA and Dynamic Environment Manager allowed it until the last Windows CU came along…
Okay so why not give them the choice to use whatever browser?
We do: Firefox, Chrome, or Edge. That’s not the problem.
The problem is with Microsofts new driver we can’t allow users to set the default browser in their VMware Instant Clone using SetUserFTA via Dynamic Environment Manager.
Posts like these reveal how many reads the article.
This is a good thing done by Microsoft. They make sure that 3rd party software can’t change the default browser without the user knowing.
They will get prompted with the choice screen showing all installed browsers. And when they make their choice, even Edge wouldn’t be able to prey people into clicking a button that makes it the default instead.
So many headline readers. To be honest, 99% of these problems that folks rage about could be resolved with a group policy (local or domain). The problem is, Windows is like 73% of worldwide OS usage, so like it or not, there is a lot of trying to protect the user from themselves. Team Linux can’t fathom that because they come from the perspective that they can build thier experience from the ground up to be exactly as they like. The VAST majority of people don’t want that, they want something that works and they don’t really care what happens behind the curtains. I would wager that 90% of users could care less what browser they use (or would even notice if it changed!) as long as they still had access to their bookmarks.
I would like to share a positive experience from this new driver the article is about. I use notepad++ and setting it as the default was kind of a pain in the butt. It would work sometimes, but not consistently, and often depended on a registry hack or symlink to work. Now with the new interface for default apps, as long as I have the new Windows Notepad app installed when I change the defaults for “open with”, it just works! For all the file extensions, all the time. Honestly it’s a much better experience and it’s ACCESSIBLE to the lay person.
Considering that Edge makes itself the default browser and even PDF reader on its own every few weeks, I don’t trust Microsoft to keep Edge from taking over as default without user input.
They’d have to. They don’t make the change so they can be nice. It’s probably also only for EU users, when it releases.
No they don’t. At most they just have to detect automatic changes and ask the user to confirm. They have no reason for forcing the user to dig into menus and then also repeatedly override that same choice.
Nope the article state
In principal, the change is good for reasons you mentioned. However microsoft has :
They just can not be trusted with this, they have proven this in the past…
No, they can’t be trusted. That’s why they are forced to do it by the EU to comply to the DMA.
This may only be released in the EU, also.
Posts like this reveal how many people believe every word a megacorp PR dept announces
More like how many believe their own stupid head-canon without reading or confirming shit.
It’s literally to comply with the EU. Microsoft doesn’t do this to be nice.
No, somebody speculated it’s to comply with the EU. The rest of us are speculating that it’s to push up their market share.
The “choose the default app” modal has special code that makes it say “HEY BTW EDGE EXISTS CLICK HERE” If the modal is for choosing your default browser. It is absolutely about control.
Hahahahahaha, right, right. Hahahaha
And I did read the article. No, this is MS continually pushing users into Edge.
The dma only speaks about easily changing the default application. It has nothing to do with this.
What the dma did allow was the “complete” uninstall of edge in windows 11.
The only thing that is left behind i noticed is the edge webview component for webview & webview2
I did a fresh install on a family member’s PC yesterday. Tried to change the region in the registry so I could uninstall Edge and it wouldn’t let me. I assume this is related.
But I also dual-booted Linux so they could try it at any time 🙃
Careful with that. Microsoft loves to periodically push updates that overwrite the boot sector to disable that dual boot configuration.
its bc ms thinks it owns your computer
Been doing it for many years and never had a problem but thanks
Man I hate Microsoft pre installing Edge on these laptops to push their browser. Anyways here is your laptop bro, also I pre installed Linux so I can push it to you.
Difference is I don’t profit off of installing Linux. Just encouraging other people to help themselves.
Meanwhile, if you use Microsoft Teams & Outlook with the Teams add-on installed … and you are wondering why your email links are suddenly opening in Edge instead of your default browser, disable the Teams add-on in Outlook and rage for a moment at the stupidity.
Teams is forcing Edge browser to open links in new Teams and by extension, in Outlook. Setting the default browser to open links within Outlook settings just leads to un-clickable links. The only way to fix it is to disable the Teams Outlook add-on.
Yes, same old Microsoft. Anyone who thinks they have changed in any way since the days of forcing Internet Explorer as the default are sadly and woefully mistaken.
You can change the default Browser to open links in Teams. I had no problems opening links in Teams or Outlook since I changed it.
I see your TLD is “.de” so maybe there it works, not in America. Home of the “free”.
Changing the setting in Teams and Outlook to Default Browser resulted in links that did not work at all. Removed Teams add-on was the only solution.
(only tangentially related) what does ‘driver’ mean in windows lingo? I thought it was hardware-related stuff but I’m probably wrong.
Just a low-level filter that inspects and vetos things (think anti virus)
It’s pretty much a program running in OS kernel space to handle specific function calls which need low level system access. Most hardware needs custom drivers to work because they need to interact with those low level OS components, so that’s why they’re mostly associated with hardware.
A lot of antiviruses use custom drivers to intercept and inspect program behavior to look for viruses, etc
I understand that software directly and silently changing the default software can be a security issue. But it’s only because it happens silently. Does Windows allow for showing a system prompt that confirms the change to the user? If not, then that’s just plain ol’ anti-competitive. Especially with how pushy Edge and Bing can be.
I don’t think the goal is to lock you into their browser, since you still can change it through the GUI. It seems to be part of the recent push to block software which changes hidden settings. The end goal being to lock down the OS and prevent users from disabling features MS wants to push onto them.