Microsoft Wants To Force Windows 10 Mail Users To Use Edge For Email Links (theverge.com) 172
Microsoft has revealed today that "we will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge." What this means is that if you have Chrome or Firefox set as your default browser in Windows 10, Microsoft will simply ignore that and force you into Edge when you click a link within the Mail app. The Verge reports: "As always, we look forward to feedback from our WIP community," says Microsoft's Dona Sarkar in a blog post today. I'm sure Microsoft will receive a lot of feedback over this unnecessary change, and we can only hope the company doesn't ignore it.
Use a different mail app (Score:5, Insightful)
Use a different mail app ... problem solved.
(1) View webmail in a different browser
(2) Install Outlook, which will remain configurable for business reasons
(3) Install Thunderbird or another 3rd party email app
Microsoft Mail is the new Outlook Express, without the charm of a built-in NNTP client...
Re: (Score:3)
yep.. MS still needs to learn that only apple can get away with abusing their customers and have them begging, salivating, and quivering for more.
(am i trolling? maybe. but using this type of lock-in bullshit seems to be right out of apple's playbook.)
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone seems to forget the era when Microsoft locked-in Internet Explorer (with horrific results), causing the EU, and yes, even the USA to demand that those poor Mozilla folks, and that tiny company called Google, and all those little guys had to be able to play as a first-choice browser.
It's pretty insulting for Microsoft to have chosen to mandate its own browser AGAIN.
Apple's BS had nothing to do with it-- Microsoft has shot a hole in its foot, the SAME FOOT, before. They just don't remember the pain.
They are just widening the hole (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
You can turn off Cortana, and yes, you can turn off Windows Mail. But the mandate, that's a problem.
I wonder if there's a way to rename Firefox as Edge, and have it come up instead. I'll have to try that sometime. But not now.
Re: (Score:2)
And they'll make us pay for it
Re: (Score:2)
"their very own walled garden"
Or mausoleum.
Re: (Score:2)
(1)Drop M$ and all its product.
(2)Nothing else required.
Re: (Score:2)
Their mail app when 8.0 was released was awful. No reason anyone would want to use that. It was spyware too, you couldn't even run it without a microsoft account in addition to the mail account.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never used the Mail app. I don't see the reason to. The websites are all SPAs now, and as responsive as an app without any of the overhead
Ha! (Score:2)
>""As always, we look forward to feedback from our WIP community," says Microsoft's Dona Sarkar "
Be careful what you ask for....
Flip the middle finger at your users, AGAIN, for the zillionth time, and expect what? A "thanks, this is great!"?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Most likely. c# is still the best language for business development because it is so quick to reliably bang shit or enterprise scale applications out in, client or server - while the IDE is still the easiest to use. Microsoft has had two things going for them from the start: marketing and catering to developers (the source of all the shit users use,) the latter is the only thing which really matters because if it costs a business 1.2x as much to do something in Linux and the enterprise operating system an
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Since I will not be using mail on win10 anyways... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, the only thing I am going to trust Win10 with (somewhat) when win7 goes out of service will be gaming. No email, no web-browsing, nada. They can f*** their creepy selves. Instead I will have a clean, trustworthy Linux box for anything non-gaming and a win10 box for gaming only.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
But spy32545434warecle4ner.ru is where I get all my porn!
Re: (Score:3)
Wow, really? Let me check spy32545434warecle4ner.ru real qui{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER
Re:Since I will not be using mail on win10 anyways (Score:5, Funny)
*bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark*
*BLAM* *BLAM*
NO TERRIER
Re: (Score:2)
*bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark* *bark*
*BLAM* *BLAM*
NO TERRIER
Aww...wish I had mod points today.
Re: (Score:3)
Or just keep running Win 7 -- just don't be stupid and click on links from spy32545434warecle4ner.ru.
Even when Win 7 goes out of support, it's only support for client programs that really matters. As long as the TCP/IP stack has no holes that can't be firewalled against, there's no reason for Windows updates.
Some computers are perfectly fine running XP in 2018
Alas, Firefox stops support for XP and Vista in June 2018, leaving you with no usable browser. That makes the computer no good for a typical user, although it'd still be useful for that Windows-only $1M medical device.
And, it looks like Windows is rapidly stopping to be the problem. IOT crap, on the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't care about firefox - I recently found that streaming audio through VLC sounds a whole lot better than through firefox (probably because VLC has an equaliser), so that one little eeePC running XP will continure to provide audio for my kitchen. I've turned off all other network services, and it sits behind the household firewall, so I'm not worried.
Re: (Score:2)
They have loads of legacy code in their codebase to support XP. Something drastic changed in their hardware-accelerated UI rendering that requires Windows 7 or higher to run. I wish I could remember the details. Someone could fork it and backport security fixes, but wouldn't be able to easily backport new functionality.
Re: (Score:2)
You mean: "no legitimate technical reason that I, not being a browser developer, can think of off the top of my head".
Keeping everything running on Windows XP is actually an enormous pain. All kinds of important improvements like faster rendering and more secure sandboxing rely on features that aren't present in XP. To preserve XP compatibility you have to add "if (windowsXP)" code paths (which in some cases means entirely different implementations of large chunks of functionality) and keep testing them, wh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There will likely be third party builds which still run, there are still third party builds for powerpc macs among other things.
Re: (Score:2)
I want a CPU upgrade for gaming eventually, so that is unfortunately not an option. Otherwise I would probably be doing that.
Re: (Score:2)
Avoiding dodgy domains doesn't help much...
There is a lot of malicious advertising present on otherwise legitimate sites, legitimate sites also get hacked and configured to spread malware.
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, the only thing I am going to trust Win10 with (somewhat) when win7 goes out of service will be gaming.
I was recently forced to move to windows 10 because windows virtual reality headsets only work with windows 10. It's not better than windows 7, feels like more of the same really.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You mean a Windows branded VR headset, or all VR headsets in the entire world that can work with Windows?
Re: (Score:2)
You mean a Windows branded VR headset, or all VR headsets in the entire world that can work with Windows?
The problem is you need some beefy hardware. Windows 7 is no longer supported for anything after Skylake hardware. Even Skylake had no Windows 7 support until Dell and HP SCREAMED to support it until 2019 before EOL.
New business laptops do not use the latest 2 intel cpu and chipsets for this reason :-D
Also Nvidia no longer supports Windows 7 32 bit which is the majority of enterprise installs.
Re: (Score:3)
Even for games....
I understand that for AAA games Windows is the way to go.
But if you are into the indie game scene, most indie games on Steam also work on Linux.
I also have Windows for gaming only, but currently all the games that I am palying work on Linux.
Thanks Steam.
Re: (Score:2)
Note that some AAA games that you could optionally get from the apps store worked worse than the same game purchased a different way. They only sell "Universal Application Platform" apps in their store, and most games aren't built that way and are more traditional apps. There aren't enough AAA games in the Windows app store to know how this is going to play out though, but if history is any indication, Microsoft will screw this up the same way they screwed the pooch with GFWL.
Re: (Score:2)
I will stay away from the MS app store if at all possible. So far MS never had anything I wanted badly enough. And yes. MS screwing up things is not the exception, it is the expectation.
Re: (Score:2)
I am into both. Hence I basically need that Windows box at least for a part of what I am playing. Otherwise I would go with no Windows at all.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not certain about their gaming, they've been doing stupid stuff there too if you buy games from their app store. Don't forget the stupidity of Windows for Games Live, whenever they see some other companies monetizing users MS will always jump in and try to grab a piece of the pie too.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I will avoid the MS app store if at all possible. So far there is nothing available only there that would tempt me.
Re: (Score:2)
Which makes since, since games are the only thing that really push the full capabilities of a modern machine to the max.
Antitrust (Score:1)
Really? (Score:2)
" we can only hope the company doesn't ignore it."
Wrong. What you can do is take control of your hardware with an OS that permits it.
Re: (Score:2)
" we can only hope the company doesn't ignore it."
Wrong. What you can do is take control of your hardware with an OS that permits it.
You can also take control by not using shitty software, like Edge and Windows Mail.
Re: (Score:2)
Which pretty much requires replacing the OS, since you can't get rid of this unwanted software while still running windows 10.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never opened windows mail. I don't know why anyone would. hotmail, gmail, etc all work perfectly fine in the browser.
Re: (Score:2)
I started to post this as AC to avoid getting dinged for expressing the unpopular opinion. I only decided to bother because somebody ought to say some things that I haven't seen said already. After previewing it, I decided I should put my name on it, even if it's unpopular.
" we can only hope the company doesn't ignore it."
Wrong. What you can do is take control of your hardware with an OS that permits it.
Or take control of your hardware and software to ensure it does exactly what you want, the way you want. Not that I disagree with using an OS that facilitates making sure your computer does what you want. I've used open source for my prim
Here is your feeback NO! (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
This will really piss off ... (Score:2)
... all 3 people.
Batch file scripting? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You could try replacing the executable from another Windows instance, or Safe Mode maybe. Except the binary (like Cortana among others) is a monitored file, whose hash-sum is checked, and will be replaced by the OS if it is found to of been tampered with.
You could try removing most permissions from it except for read,and/or creating a edge junction|hardlink, but Microsoft will still update the file via Windows Update. They are real cock suckers.
About the only option going forward, if you are going to be r
Re: (Score:3)
You could try replacing the executable from another Windows instance, or Safe Mode maybe. Except the binary (like Cortana among others) is a monitored file, whose hash-sum is checked, and will be replaced by the OS if it is found to of been tampered with.
You rename the folder Cortania is located in, works for me.
So glad I left winblows (Score:2)
... except for gaming. I jumped to the big fruity ship that Apple built. It was that bad on Windows. Now it’s that good on Mac: Office apps with a *nix shell.
It's not a completely unreasonable change (Score:2)
"For Windows Insiders in the Skip Ahead ring, we will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge, which provides the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10 and across your devices. With built-in features for reading, note-taking, Cortana integration, and easy access to services such as SharePoint and OneDrive, Microsoft Edge enables you
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It's not a completely unreasonable change (Score:4)
None of those reasons they cite are specific to email. They're valid reasons why one might want to use Edge as the default browser for everything in Windows 10, but if a user has nonetheless chosen to use a different browser, the mail app -- just like other apps -- ought to respect that preference.
This is marketing-speak. It seems pretty clear that the purpose of this change is basically to advertise Edge: Microsoft is dissatisfied with how many people are choosing different browsers, Microsoft thinks that people would prefer Edge if only they'd give it a try, so Microsoft is basically railroading people into trying Edge whether they want to or not. Same sort of thinking that gave us GWX.
Re: (Score:3)
[...] It seems pretty clear that the purpose of this change is basically to advertise Edge: Microsoft is dissatisfied with how many people are choosing different browsers, [...]
But what do I know? I see the OS as a framework to manage resources and load the programs *I* want to use, and *not* as some kind of interconnected environment of programs that the OS manufacturer wants me to use. Besides, Micros
Re: (Score:3)
That's all nice reasoning and I'm sure something like it showed up in a presentation at Microsoft when they pitched this.
But the real reason is of course that top executives are demanding improvements in Edge's usage numbers. They've tried PR, they've done the battery life "Pepsi challenge", they've reset preferences during major updates, they have nag screens reminding you that entire villages in India rely on Edge for clean water and medicine, they even made it better at searching for porn.
But still noth
Microsoft does NOT respect you ... (Score:4, Insightful)
.. nor your preferences.
Fuck them. Use software that does.
Wow, serendipity (Score:3)
I don't use Windows 10 mail, Live Mail, or anything with the words "mail" and "windows" or "microsoft" in the same title. Previously it was because I happen to like the mailer I've been using (in various versions) since the nineties, but now I have an even better reason -- currently, when I click on a link, it opens in Firefox. Or Chrome, whatever one has one's default browser set to.
I understand Microsoft wanting people to use all Microsoft products whenever possible, but I have to wonder -- is this a sign that Edge isn't reaching estimated levels of popularity?
Re: (Score:3)
Soooo? (Score:5, Funny)
If you're actually using the Windows Store Mail app, Edge is what you deserve for a browser.
Dont use email and MS (Score:2)
Just play computer games on Windows computers.
Let MS collect data about the fun of playing computer games.
That fast CPU, GPU, their OS and all the computer games.
Move your work to a real OS that respects your privacy.
As an Internet Helpdesk employee (Score:2)
Our company has never fully supported the Win 8 or 10 Mail apps. If it works, fine, but if a user calling in has trouble with it, apart from checking the basic settings, our policy is to assist them in installing Thunderbird as a replacement or to point them towards webmail instead.
Worst. Client. Ever.
This is yet another step in the wrong direction.
Edge is great! (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
You never win with proprietary software. (Score:2)
You're running Thunderbird (a free software program; a program that respects it's user's freedoms to run, inspect, share, and modify the software) on top of non-free Microsoft Windows (proprietary, user-subjugating software). Microsoft has all the power they need to get your IMAP credentials. If you have Google, Apple, or other proprietary software running on the same system they likely can read your sto
Re: (Score:2)
I just use Thunderbird and POP. Lightning is built into Thunderbird now. Phone and pads use Imap just to read until I get back to the PC to pull mail.
Re: (Score:2)
Thunderbird is still awesome.
Note for long, sadly. Hopefully they provide some sort of API for service additions (e.g. dealing with Exchange's bullshit), but I'm not holding my breath.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/thunderbird-will-phase-out-legacy-add-ons-will-support-webextensions/
Thanks for the heads-up on this AC. Time to change my Apt settings so Thunderbird never gets updated again. Now I have to hope that Moonchild takes on a 'Pale Bird' project to save Thunderbird from the crackpots at Mozilla, the way he saved all that was good from Firefox with Pale Moon.
Re: (Score:2)
We don’t care because there hasn’t been any major improvement in email apps in 20 years. For most of us we actually will just use the web app or what ever we have on our system.
Besides for this topic. Why should we need to click a link in the emails? Just so we can install spyware faster.
Re: (Score:2)
Or any dekstop mail app?
Why would I install a pointless bloated program (or worse, an "app") on every computer I use? Just ssh and do mail from the server. :p
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
are you a pine, elm, or mutt sort of dude?
Me, elm. And trn as my News Reader. I wouldn't call them 'apps'..
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, there's comp.misc which has refugees from the beta. For the parts of usenet I use, there's hardly even any spam now.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or any dekstop mail app?
Why would I install a pointless bloated program (or worse, an "app") on every computer I use? Just ssh and do mail from the server. :p
Because that pointless bloated program is built into windows 10, but you could argue windows is a pointless bloated program too ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Those of us who actually have to communicate with more than abbreviations and pansy little icons.
Re: (Score:1)
You mean with a real keyboard and no ads? Yes, I use a desktop mail application. What else would I use?
Re: (Score:2)
The websites?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I had email in the '90s, both from the university and my home ISP. I certainly heard about Hotmail back then, but saw no reason for it.
I've never had a "Windows login" (is that something they added in 10, or is it older? I jumped from XP to Linux), and I've certainly never had a Google account.
People have no idea how much easier it is to use an Android device without a Google account on it.
Why would anyone use something that's linked to so many other things?
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't even know android would let you do that.
I find it convenient. If i need to reset my device, I can easily find what i had installed before
Re: (Score:2)
It's linked to your windows login, so if you have a hotmail account from the 90’s (which you probably do if you had email in the 90’s) logging in with hotmail and having it sync everything is incredibly convenient. Plus with Google linking your email with YouTube account and social media I don't like giving out my gmail anymore, don't want people to look up everything I ever uploaded or every comment I've made when I send them an email.
I totally get your mistrust of gmail - the only account I have there is pseudonymous, and I only have it because I need access to the Play Store, and that's the only use it ever gets. But let me get this straight: you trust Microsoft - the folks who forced their rented-spyware-masquerading-as-an-OS onto the computers of gazillions of people - more than you trust Google? Why?
Re: (Score:2)
Excellent trolling, sir!
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. I use a desktop mail client precisely because I like to maintain my own archive. My .PST file is about 22 GB in size at the moment, consuming about 80 cents' worth of disk space at current prices. It doesn't go back to 1999, but it goes back about 12 years.
People are always trying to sell me on everything from IMAP to GMail, telling me how great the experience of using server-side email is compared to Outlook. It's funny, though... whenever somebody needs to know what X said in an email from Y month
Re: (Score:2)
Really? I've never cleaned up any of my email in hotmail. They just periodically increase the size of online storage, and I've never had any reason to.
Outlook at work has a 50gb storage limit on the server. When they upped it to that I moved my pst emails back to the server. Makes it easier to reimage the machine and not worry about it
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. I use a desktop mail client precisely because I like to maintain my own archive ... ... whenever somebody needs to know what X said in an email from Y months or years ago ...
^^This, a thousand times. I still use POP, so I can maintain an archive of inbound mail on any and all machines I have. And I'm slow to clear the server, so it's easy to bring even new machines up-to-date without copying over the database manually. Now, if I could just find a way to make POP synchronize the sent mail on all of my machines. I've been told that IMAP can do that, but I've never been able to figure out how to make IMAP (a) leave both sent and received messages on the server while (b) storing bo
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. I use a desktop mail client precisely because I like to maintain my own archive. My .PST file is about 22 GB in size at the moment, consuming about 80 cents' worth of disk space at current prices. It doesn't go back to 1999, but it goes back about 12 years.
People are always trying to sell me on everything from IMAP to GMail, telling me how great the experience of using server-side email is compared to Outlook. It's funny, though... whenever somebody needs to know what X said in an email from Y months or years ago, they always come to me.
Dude you need to take care of that .PST file ASAP. After awhile when it gets too big Outlook will corrupt it by writting the latest data wrapped to the begining of the file. You will loose anything.
I have been threatened so many times by furious executives screaming GET ME MY ARCHIVE back to my bosses etc. Outlook 2007 only supports 23 gig and I forgot the limit of the later version.
If you switch to office 365 you can drag the folders to the cloud. I would do so.
Re: (Score:2)
Outlook versions prior to 2010 were terrible, all right. 2010 is great. When/if the .PST file becomes corrupt, it should be easy enough to deal with.
Re: (Score:2)
I was a senior desktop support analyst. There is no fix. Your data is gone. Another poster said the same thing. I think it maybe close to 50 gigs but Outlook will get flaky very soon.
I HATED PST files as they are were the bane of my existence for any migration from old to new PC. Fail one and you're fired and are very inefficient. One of the great things with the cloud are no more PST files which are good as that data belongs on a server. Not on a PC. ... done nitpicking.
Re: (Score:2)
And yet, like I said, I'm the only one of my peers who ever seems to actually be able to retrieve stuff when it's needed. It's probably a good thing I don't work at the White House.
There always seems to be a reason why IMAP users can't put their hands on the message they're looking for. Usually it's somebody else's fault, which I guess is the whole idea.
Re: (Score:2)
That was indeed a massive, massive problem with older versions of Outlook. But 2010 has been rock-solid for years, and has remained surprisingly fast as well.
Nevertheless, my .PST file is backed up on a journaling file system very frequently. If Outlook shits the bed at 50 gigabytes or whatever, I'll roll it back and split off an archive. No biggie.
Re: (Score:3)
Why would anyone click a link in an email?
That is the fast track to spyware.
Re: (Score:2)
The one I'm using now is only a few years old and it has over half a billion of them. Did you mean valves?
P.S. My what?
Re: (Score:2)
There will be one left though. Always one last person clinging to the belief that Microsoft can do no wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Use Xfce rather than Gnome and the desktop on Linux is still good. Debian lets you mostly kill off the brokenness of systemd and Slack, Devuan and a few others remove it entirely.
Just say no to Wayland until they face the fact that they deliberately ignored a commonly used feature of X and then lied about X by claiming it never had it.