Microsoft this week confirmed to Paul Thurrott that it is forcing the Edge browser on Windows 11 users in specific scenarios (i.e., opening search results from the Start menu). Moreover, the company is taking this action even if customers have a third-party browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox set as their default browser.
“Windows openly enables applications and services on its platform, including various web browsers,” said Microsoft in a statement to Thurrott. “At the same time, Windows also offers certain end-to-end customer experiences in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, the search experience from the taskbar is one such example of an end-to-end experience that is not designed to be redirected. When we become aware of improper redirection, we issue a fix.”
Microsoft is, of course, talking about EdgeDeflector. Daniel Aleksandersen, the developer of EdgeDeflector, noticed that Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 Insider Preview builds blocked his app from functioning. So Aleksandersen designed EdgeDeflector to allow a Windows user’s default browser to display Start menu search results, bypassing Microsoft’s hijacking of the customer’s default browser choice.
When a customer sets Chrome, for example, as their default browser, it’s a reasonable assumption that it would be used within Windows 11 for all browser-related duties. Microsoft disagrees as it cites a disruption to the end-to-end user experience for customers with workaround apps like EdgeDeflector. However, we’d argue that if a customer has chosen to use a third-party browser, forcing Edge upon them for simple tasks is a direct contradiction of this edict.
“It’s clearly a user-hostile move that sees Windows compromise its own product usability in order to make it more difficult to use competing products,” said Aleksandersen last week. “Your web browser is probably the most important — if not the only — app you regularly use. Microsoft has made it clear that its priorities for Windows don’t align with its users’.”
Aleksandersen tells users to complain to local antitrust regulators or switch to a competing operating system like Linux to put pressure on Microsoft. However, if you want a slightly complicated workaround for Microsoft’s latest attack on default browsers, there’s a new script that allows you to maintain the status quo.
This is the latest saga in the default browser battle in Windows 11. The company caught flak recently, most vocally from Firefox developer Mozilla, for making it more difficult for users to switch their default browser.
Microsoft allows Windows 11 to be installed on older, unsupported hardware but specifically nixes official support — minimum requirements for full compatibility remain unchanged
Windows 11 for Arm can run natively on specific Android smartphones — the test device heats up very fast, and battery life substantially decreases
