Mozilla Says Microsoft Went Too Far With Windows 10

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Mozilla wrote an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella requesting that Microsoft make it easier for users who upgrade to Windows 10 to maintain their existing program preferences, and to make it easier to change preferences in the future.

The letter is in response to the recent release of Windows 10. When a user upgrades to Windows 10 from a previous OS, Microsoft overwrites several default settings, such as your choices for your default web browser and default search engine. This isn't such a surprising move for Microsoft to make, as it wants to grow its market share of users on the Edge browser and on Bing, but Mozilla sees it as a mistake.

Mozilla feels that this needlessly forces users into trying products they may not want. Clearly, these users knowingly chose to use the browser they had before upgrading, and if they wanted to use the other browser, they would. 

This isn't the only thing that Mozilla is unhappy about in Windows 10, either. When a user wants to change these settings back, you can't simply click a button that says "Set as default web browser," unlike previous OSes. Instead, to set your default web browser back you first click a button that opens a settings panel in Windows 10. You then scroll down, find the web browser preference, and change it to whatever you want it to be.

This isn't very complicated, but it does take up a user's time, and it's annoying. It might also be confusing for some users who have difficulty adjusting Windows settings, and surprising to other users who expect that clicking the button will, as it always has in the past, change the setting for you.

Mozilla wants Microsoft to give users back the option to choose their web browser and other preferences without the hassle. We'll be interested to how and if Nadella responds.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
137 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    It easily changed back and Edge is pretty decent.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Really Mozilla!?? Your complaining about such a minor issue!?

    Just because your browser isn't the default browser doesn't mean it won't be used. I personally use Mozilla Firefox for 50% of my browser time and the rest goes to edge.

    Plus, I see lots of people that use Firefox exclusively but have IE as default...
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    16361493 said:
    It easily changed back and Edge is pretty decent.

    You certainly aren't someone we would expect to have difficulty changing Windows settings either. Someone like my college professors or my mother on the other hand, would be very irritated by not being able to easily change it back to Firefox or w/e they wanted to use.
    Reply
  • gangrel
    It's not that it's hard. MS has been slammed before for similar tactics, promoting their tools, and this does have similarities.

    What I disliked was the amount of Microsoft bloatware...news, sports, etc. And the way they ram those down your throat on Edge's start page. HECK no, I don't want that. And I agree with Mozilla to a point, about needing to 2-step the preference setting stuff. Still...if you're going to change THAT setting, you may well want to change others (like mail).
    Reply
  • ommidiam
    Chrome users shrug and reinstall Chrome. Set it to default during install. Then log back in in less than five minutes. Don't pay for Windows 10 and then complain about it.
    Reply
  • n3cw4rr10r
    I have been a chrome user for like a zillion years. I am kinda liking edge.....
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Edge is very quick , been using it.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    I like it the way it is. You open your browser of choice, and get a prompt to set it as default.

    Then a learning moment happens. "Oh this magic box has settings I can change to suit my tastes? I shall investigate this." They're given a window of options they wouldn't normally have gone searching for on their own. I imagine that there is that crowd that will think "omg a popup already!" *clicks X* Lives in confusion.

    Those people never learned to program VCRs either.
    Reply
  • gangrel
    BTW: Mozilla was not completely correct.

    If you choose Express Settings during the upgrade, Edge becomes your default browser. If you revert to Microsoft's recommendations...Edge becomes the default. (That should surprise no one.) But if you choose the Customize options...which I always have...you can turn off the default browser selection, and use whatever your current browser is.

    Another thought. The default browser selector shows ALL your installed browsers. So you can turn off the "make this your default browser?" permanently in all of them where it's needed...and just do it here. That makes more sense, and will work better for us once we get used to it.
    Reply
  • fixxxer113
    I think that this argument would be valid several years ago, when the average user didn't even know what a browser is, let alone that there are alternative ones. Nowadays, even the most casual user is aware of at least Chrome and Firefox. And they use these browsers mostly because other people keep telling them that they are better than IE.

    Personally, I use Chrome because when I first used it, it was miles ahead from IE and I just stuck with it. If Edge works well I might use that too. As for Firefox, I will start using it again when - especially on slower machines - I don't have to wait until my kid goes to college before the browser starts up and loads a page...
    Reply