11.10.2024

Edge or Nothing: Microsoft Bans Browser Switching for Quick Search on Windows

It won't be long before searching through Start will no longer be convenient for anyone but Edge and Bing users. -zapreshhaet-smenu-brauzera-dlja-bystrogo-poiska-v-windows-0dcadbb.jpg” alt=”Edge or nothing: Microsoft bans changing browser for quick search on Windows” />

Earlier in this Microsoft has already made it harder to change the default browser in Windows 11 and is now targeting third-party apps that allow you to change the browser for searching through the Start menu. Even if the user changed the default browser in Windows 10 or Windows 11, the system still uses Edge and Bing to show quick search results.

Until now, utilities like EdgeDeflector have allowed you to change this and open search results through Chrome or any other browser chosen by the user, and Firefox even allows you to change this setting without additional programs. But in a new preview build of Windows 11, which will be released to all users in a few weeks, we found that EdgeDeflector and other programs that perform microsoft-edge protocol redirects so that the desired browser opens instead of Edge.

Microsoft representatives have already given The Verge's comment, from which it clearly follows that this is not a bug and the situation will not change by the public release of the update: “Windows openly accepts various applications and services, including web browsers. However, some features in Windows 10 and Windows 11 are not subject to change – for example, searching through the Start menu is not designed to redirect.

The creator of EdgeDeflector notes that the app's 500,000 users were unlikely to be a big threat to Microsoft , which cannot be said about the user base of Firefox and Brave – the first of which has already introduced a similar feature, and the second announced its release in the near future.