Providers of browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi and Brave are annoyed by Microsoft's measures to handle the standard apps under Windows 11. Microsoft makes the choice of browsers other than Edge unnecessarily complicated, since under Windows 11 each file type has to be assigned an app.
If you miss the chance on Windows 11 after installing a alternative browser and then opening a web link for the first time, deselecting the Edge preinstalled by Microsoft and permanently switching to another browser by selecting the corresponding check box, this dialog does not appear again and you are initially bound to Edge.
With Windows 10, a redirect to the operating system settings triggered by the alternative browser after the first opening may help, in order to select a new standard app for the browser. Windows 10 offers a menu for standard apps in the new settings and there in the “Apps” area, in which standard apps can be defined for important areas such as e-mail, music and video players, the image display and also for the browser.
Microsoft uses Edge for the taskbar widget
Even under Windows 10, Microsoft wants to keep users with Edge as much as possible, as the note “Recommended for Windows 10” in the alternative browser selection menu already makes clear. In addition, when changing the browser, Windows asks if you really don't want to use Edge anymore. Only repeated confirmation ultimately leads to the alternative browser being saved. However, the personalized setting does not include all areas of the operating system, as the widget for news in the system tray introduced with KB5003214 shows. This continues to use Edge despite the selection of a different standard browser.
Windows 11 requires selection of file types
Windows 11 makes switching browsers even more complicated and alternative solution providers aren't happy about it, The Verge reports. Microsoft is abolishing the selection of new standard apps according to categories such as browser, e-mail or music and video players and requires users to select their standard apps according to file type. In the case of the browser, a standard app must now be laboriously defined for file types such as HTML, HTTP, HTTPS, XHTML and similar.
Microsoft is making it harder to switch default browsers in Windows 11. Alongside The new Widgets that ignore your default browser choice, Microsoft's browser competitors aren't happy. My report here: https://t.co/57PTPAMgRD pic.twitter.com/zozUpZpk9r
& mdash; Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 18, 2021
Other browser providers are annoyed
“Since Windows 10, users have had to take additional, unnecessary steps to set and keep their personal standard browser settings,” said Selena Deckelmann, SVP of Firefox. The hurdles are confusing and undermine user choice. According to a Vivaldi spokesman, Microsoft's behavior is getting worse. “With every new version of Windows it becomes more difficult to change the standard settings.” According to Vivaldi, Microsoft can only get users to use Edge by locking them into it.
Krystian Kolondra, Opera's Head of Browsers, describes the situation as “regrettable”, since Microsoft, as a platform provider, operates a certain kind of obscuration towards users in order to give their own browser an advantage. Taking away the user's freedom of choice is a step in the wrong direction. “We encourage all platform providers to respect the choice of users and to allow competition on their platforms,” said Kolondra.
Google hopes for changes in the final Windows 11
Although Google did not make an official statement, Hiroshi Lockheimer, who runs Android, Chrome and Chrome OS, was just as unsatisfied with Microsoft on Twitter. He hopes this is just a limitation in the developer versions of Windows 11. The for the time being final Windows 11 is to be released for the holiday season from November.
Brave “despises” Microsoft's approach under Windows 11 because the selection of a standard browser also have a major impact on data protection and the privacy of the user. “Users should be free to choose.”
Microsoft wants to listen to customer feedback
Microsoft also has its say in the report and justifies the changed settings with customer feedback, according to which more users would have wished for more differentiated options that no longer work with app categories. But Microsoft also says that Windows 11 will evolve over time. “If, based on user experience, we see that there are opportunities for improvement, we will implement it.”