Microsoft back to its old tricks to get an edge on the competition.

[douglas9]

What if Microsoft put the same effort into improving their Internet Explorer (Edge) browser as they do making it so hard for you to use a different browser on Windows? Vivaldi is not afraid of competing on a level playing field. Why is Microsoft?


We’ve been here before. And it is frustrating in 2021 to find Microsoft blatantly engaging in anti-competitive practices once again.

I picked up on this latest round when I got my new Windows laptop. Naturally the first thing I did was to fire up the default browser Internet Explorer (Edge) to download Vivaldi. But it seems like Microsoft does not like the idea of people trying out Vivaldi… This is what they show when you search for Vivaldi in Bing on Edge.

They tell you that you don’t need to try another browser and tell you to use the one they recommend… which is made by them. What are the odds?

After downloading and installing Vivaldi, I wanted to set it as my default browser. But Microsoft doesn’t give up that quickly. It does not want you to stop using Edge. So it makes basic things like changing the default browser difficult. This is on Windows 10. Windows 11 is even worse, as Forbes reports.


https://vivaldi.com/blog/microsoft-back-to-its-old-tricks-to-get-an-edge-on-the-competition/

[Historic NY]

1. When I mentioned that I was told just how wonderful Edge was..

So now my Windows kicks up K-mode and Watchdog blue screens and thinks I have malewarebytes.
No luck on roll backs either. IT hate the HP system. Its going to IT later to figure it out. It just doesn't want you to like any other browser.

[AllaN01Bear]

2. they never left . did it in the background.

[Thunderbeast]

3. I keep hoping that someone will develop a Linux distro that is user friendly

I keep hoping. I have machines running ubuntu derivatives, but I still have to go to a command line prompt and type cryptic code to load many programs or set up printers (assuming drivers are available).

For all their many flaws, Microsoft and Apple don't send you to a command line terminal for routine configuration and maintenance.

By the time Windows 10 expires in a couple of years, I hope I can configure my laptop and mini-desktop to do the things I need. I'm a guy fairly conversant in UNIX. I sold the product for AT&T, and took courses from MIT professors at a time when UNIX was purely a command line interface.

It still baffles me.

[NullTuples]

5. That IS user friendly in Linux - You didn't have to recompile a thing!

Just kidding. Sort of. I've been using Linux since at least Slackware started, possibly earlier IIR. I'm actually amazed that I haven't had to compile anything I didn't want to in quite a few years.

But just as a reminder, you or someone you know probably does use a Linux distro that's mostly user friendly - at least enough to put it on millions of consumer devices. It's called Android and/or Chrome OS. Sure, they're incompatible with all other distros. But I'm nearly convinced the existence and success of Android & Chromebooks are what are now keeping Linux from being developed for extremely user friendly devices like phones, tablets, easy to use laptops and so on.

[NullTuples]

4. "It's my nature said the scorpion"

1. set default browser to Vivaldi or any lesser browser

2. run this from an elevated prompt: https://github.com/AveYo/fox/blob/main/ChrEdgeFkOff.cmd

A quick glance indicates it may work for notepad vs notepad2, NP++ or whatever as well with minimal tweaking. It appears to grab the ID for Edge, then use it to replace all the entries found with the ID of whatever you changed the default to (in this case, Vivaldi).

[OilemFirchen]

6. Why would you use a Microsoft search engine to find an alternate browser?

Not defending Microsoft, nor did I read the article (the link suggests that it may be a bit self-serving), but did Google go out of business?

Seriously... who uses Bing?

[ManiacJoe]

7. I read the article.

Cannot say I am impressed.
Yes, the description on how to change the default browser is accurate.
Yes, all the common browsers will prompt you to switch them back to the default if they were ever set as the default.