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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, @04:12PM (4 children)
Old need. Ms been doing for years. Talk about how ms blows up a good install daily with no way to stop it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:05PM (3 children)
That isn't entirely accurate. I just asked the wife how old her installation of Windows 7 is. I'm not sure, she isn't either. We agree that it's more than six years old. Windows 7 is exactly what she wanted, and she's not willing to have it borked by Microsoft's insistence on "upgrades". She has her methods to ensure that her computer doesn't update/upgrade without her approval, and I helped her by killing the telemetry channels at the router. I read more techy news than she does, so I try to keep her updated to dangerous updates/upgrades. But, she has her own channels through which she learns of some of those dangers before I do.
Yes, you CAN maintain a Microsoft computer, despite Microsoft's best efforts to screw it up. It just takes more effort than most people are willing to put into it.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:49PM (1 child)
Hell, I'm still running XP in a VM for cross-development; it's fine. Like most Microsoft products, it's not safe to let it go outside to play, so no network connections for it. Still, other than it having to virtually hang on the wall in a bundling bag, why, it's doing just fine!
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 14 2018, @12:38AM
Yeah, I was running MSWind95 until a year or two ago. But I never let it near the internet.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by toddestan on Friday September 14 2018, @03:22AM
By the way, if you type "systeminfo" at the command prompt, it will tell you the install date and a lot of other things too. My Windows 7 desktop was installed on 2/6/2012, 9:52:46 AM, which would correspond to when I assembled it originally.
Part of this, of course, is to be careful about you install and allow to run on it.