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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
When you try to install the Firefox pr Chrome web browser on a recent Windows 10 version 1809 Insider build, you may notice that the installation gets interrupted by the operating system.
The intermediary screen that interrupts the installation states that Edge is installed on the device and that it is safer and faster than the browser that the user was about to install on the device.
Options provided are to open Microsoft Edge or install the other browser anyway. There is also an option to disable the warning type in the future but that leads to the Apps listing of the Settings application and no option to do anything about that.
[...] Companies like Google or Microsoft have used their market position in the past to push their own products. Google pushes Chrome on all of its properties when users use different browsers to connect to them, and Microsoft too displayed notifications on the Windows 10 platform to users who used other browsers that Edge was more secure or power friendly.
The intercepting of installers on Windows is a new low, however. A user who initiates the installation of a browser does so on purpose. The prompt that Microsoft displays claims that Edge is safer and faster, and it puts the Open Microsoft Edge button on focus and not the "install anyway" button.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @08:47PM (4 children)
the struggle to set Firefox as the default browser begins. I saw on a work computer running win10 that you could set Firefox as default but then win10 would silently revert back to IE or whatever. And you could do this as many times as you wanted to, with the same results. Beautiful and obviously not at all abusing monopoly position.
I can kinda sorta understand kids using windows to play silly games. But how on earth can anybody be expected to work on windows?! I mean it fights you all the way.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Friday September 14 2018, @03:08AM
This might be your work enforcing a policy and not Window malfeasance. I've had Firefox as my default browser on Win10 for a very long time.
In full disclosure, I work for Microsoft. My job as a PFE is to help support enterprise customers with group policies (among other things). I try to get my customers to set the default browser at build time and then leave it up to the user after that, but they don't always listen.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday September 14 2018, @11:55AM (2 children)
I haven't had that problem. Have been using Opera as my default browser in Win10 for awhile now.
However, it won't let me keep IE pinned to the taskbar. It's fine keeping Edge there, but the pinned IE icon doesn't seem to reliably survive reboots. I need it there as there's a lot of resources that don't render properly in Edge.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday September 17 2018, @02:09AM (1 child)
If this is an enterprise-wide problem, Microsoft and Google both have technology to help redirect specific web pages back to IE that need it. For Edge its part of the Enterprise Mode Site List functionality. For Chrome it's the Legacy Browser Support plugin.
I haven't seen any issues with pinning IE to the taskbar. Does your company enforce a start menu or taskbar layout via script or GPO? Out of the box the OS does not remove the link if it's pinned to the taskbar. That's not how it's supposed to work.
(Full disclosure, I work for Microsoft as a PFE supporting enterprise customers. Yes, I know that makes my opinion invalid.)
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday September 17 2018, @11:50AM
Actually, did testing over the weekend, it doesn't seem to do this anymore deleting IE from the taskbar. Maybe it was previously fixed with a patch or a GPO causing it was corrected.