Microsoft blocks EdgeDeflector to force Windows 11 users into Edge

Microsoft has already made it more difficult to switch default browsers in Windows 11, and now the company is going a step further by block apps like EdgeDeflector. Third-party apps like EdgeDeflector and even Firefox have offered workarounds to Microsoft forcing people to use Edge in Start menu search results, even if their default option web browser is not Butt on.

Microsoft has been forcing Windows 10 and Windows 11 users into Edge and its Bing look for railway locomotive in the Lead off carte du jour search results, and now with the fresh Widgets panel in Windows 11. It's a frustrating part of Windows that doesn't respect your default web browser choice. EdgeDeflector lets you bypass these restrictions, and open Commence menu search results in your default browser of choice.

The EdgeDeflector block first appeared in an early preview build of Windows 11 last calendar week. While the block initially looked like a bug, Microsoft has now confirmed the changes will go far for each Windows 11 users in a software update that's arriving in the coming weeks. Microsoft has decided to prevent app developers from invoking microsoft-edge protocol golf links, which are now restricted to the Edge web browser.

*Windows 11 makes information technology harder to lay default apps.*

"Windows openly enables applications and services happening its platform, including several web browsers," says a Microsoft representative in a statement to The Verge. "At the same time, Windows also offers certain end-to-end customer experiences in some Windows 10 and Windows 11, the search experience from the taskbar is ace much example of an end-to-end experience that is non designed to live redirected. When we become aware of unconventional redirection, we issuing a fix."

This "fix" is today theatrical role of an approaching imminent update to Windows 11 that arrived for Beta and Outlet Preview users late on Friday, and the developer of EdgeDeflector isn't happy with Microsoft's changes. "These aren't the actions of an attentive company that cares about its production anymore," says Daniel Aleksandersen, developer of EdgeDeflector, in a critical blog post last week. "Microsoft International Relations and Security Network't a unspoiled steward of the Windows OS. They're prioritizing ads, bundleware, and overhaul subscriptions over their users' productivity."

Microsoft hasn't explained wherefore it has suddenly started to block EdgeDeflector and opposite apps, but it's very clear why. "The 500,000 EdgeDeflector users were probably ne'er more than a nuisance to Microsoft," explains Aleksandersen. "However, last month some the Brave and Firefox web browsers either copied EdgeDeflector's functionality or signaled it was on the roadmap."

Firefox has 200 one thousand thousand users, so that's likely to have caught Microsoft's attention and lead them to patch this workaround. Mozilla isn't impressed with Microsoft's block here, either.

*Firefox in the Microsoft Store doesn't include default browser workarounds.*

"People deserve choice. They should have the ability to simply and easily set defaults and their choice of default browser should be respected," says a Mozilla spokesperson in a statement to The Sceptre. "We let worked along code that launches Firefox when the microsoft-edge protocol is secondhand for those users that undergo already chosen Firefox as their default web browser. Following the modern change to Windows 11, this planned implementation will no yearner be workable."

Mozilla also implemented its own workaround to quickly and easily set Firefox as the default browser on Windows 10 and Windows 11 in a single cluck. It's a feature that Microsoft limits to its Edge browser. While Mozilla's workaround is on hand in the interlingual rendition of Firefox you download from the web, if you download Firefox from the Microsoft Store and then the default browser workaround is missing.

"Firefox ships an MSIX package in the Windows Store and so that our users connected Windows 10 and Windows 11 are able to download Firefox from the Store," explains a Mozilla voice. "MSIX packages run in a 'Windows package environment.' The aspects of the Windows environment that Firefox relies on when users take Firefox to be their default browser do non work in a MSIX environment."

Microsoft's changes Here are gross, particularly the Windows 11 ones that survive more difficult to switch default browsers in the opening place. IT's an hostile scheme that reminds me of the ill-favored antimonopoly combat for bundling Internet Explorer in Windows. Microsoft too bald-faced multiple fines in Europe over its anti-competitive Internet Explorer bundling, including a $730 1000000 fine for breaking a 2009 antitrust agreement.

The strangest part of Microsoft forcing people to use Edge and ignoring browser defaults in Windows is that Microsoft Edge is a good browser. Microsoft shouldn't need to force you into using it.