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Microsoft is Interrupting Chrome and Firefox Installations To Promote Its Edge Browser in the Newest Windows 10 Build (betanews.com) 234

An anonymous reader shares a report: If you open Edge and search for "Chrome" or "Firefox" using Bing, Edge's default search engine, you'll be presented with a massive banner informing you that "Microsoft Edge is the faster, safer browser on Windows 10 and is already installed on your PC." Four boxes below then show you how Edge lets you browse longer, and faster, offers built-in protection and built-in assistance. If that doesn't stop you, then Microsoft has a new, much nastier trick up its sleeve -- when you go to install Firefox or Chrome it intercepts the action and pops up a window promoting Edge with the same line about how its browser is faster and safer. It then gives you a blue button to click to open Edge, or a grey one you can click to install the browser you actually want to use. Oh, and this window will keep appearing, unless you go into Settings and stop Windows 10 from offering you app "recommendations."
UPDATE (9/15/18): "After massive backlash by users against this move, Microsoft has finally decided to eliminate the warning message," reports Neowin.

Further reading: Creator of Opera Says Google Deliberately Undermined His New Vivaldi Web Browser.
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Microsoft is Interrupting Chrome and Firefox Installations To Promote Its Edge Browser in the Newest Windows 10 Build

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  • Whooptie doo (Score:4, Informative)

    by emho24 ( 2531820 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:43AM (#57296922)
    Chrome does the same thing when you open IE/Edge and navigate to google.com.
    • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:49AM (#57296984)

      Yes that is annoying. However, even after bypassing all that

      It then gives you a blue button to click to open Edge, or a grey one you can click to install the browser you actually want to use.

      That's a new low.

      • is it blue-pill shaped?
      • desperation (Score:5, Interesting)

        by emil ( 695 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @10:53AM (#57297762)

        A company with competitive products in the target markets would not have any need to resort to this kind of advertising. The fact that these ads exist is Microsoft's tacit admission that Windows as a consumer product has failed to compete with Google Android and Chrome OS.

        I needed a cheap Windows system recently, and I was pleasantly surprised that an old corporate desktop with a Win7 Pro license key still activates under Windows 10. This would never have been allowed when Windows was the primary consumer OS, but those days are long gone.

        Microsoft has one choice, and only one, to achieve significant penetration with Edge: open the source. There is nothing else that will help - nothing.

        • Re:desperation (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @12:01PM (#57298572) Homepage

          I needed a cheap Windows system recently, and I was pleasantly surprised that an old corporate desktop with a Win7 Pro license key still activates under Windows 10.

          Will you be equally surprised when Windows 10 switches to a monthly payment model?

          Because that's the long term plan for still allowing "upgrades" from Windows 7 machines.

          • by emil ( 695 )

            Will you be equally surprised when Windows 10 switches to a monthly payment model?

            Win7 is still the dominant desktop OS, and Microsoft seems desperate for Win10 to supplant it. Attempts to levy new fees will drive systems away, either to Linux (likely ChromiumOS or Ubuntu) or to reinstalled Win7.

            M$ may be foolish enough to try new fees, but that will stop when a 5% market share drop occurs, which would be relatively quick.

          • This doesn't seem practical. I could see them going this way moving forward but they won't be able to force all windows 10 users to start subscribing or else lose their computer. If they do this it would be best to use a different name (Windows 365?) to avoid confusion. Yes, over time they'll see fewer and fewer updates, that's normal as Microsoft hates supporting paying customers (which includes those who paid for a product more than a month prior).

            The standard for the home has been "it costs nothing as

        • by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

          Why do they need significant penetration with Edge? They're not going to parlay Edge into success in Mobile - or, as they tried with IE, to prevent web-based applications from replacing Windows native apps. So what are they getting for their investment in Edge?

          Perhaps the ability to compete with ChromeOS? Even so, why not just build another wrapper around Webkit? And in that case, why care whether users select it or not? Just fooling - I assume the reason is that they want to track your web usage - and

          • by emil ( 695 )

            It seems that Microsoft wants to stay relevant on the new platforms, and I have found them useful. I flew on Spirit airlines recently, and gmail doesn't properly show the QR on the boarding pass email. Outlook for Android does, so it's on my phone.

            Outlook likely bundles the Edge rendering engine (Trident?), and I'll tolerate it for my use case. I will not consider it for a stand-alone browser until, like Apple and Google, the code opens. The security community seems to agree on that.

            • Outlook likely does ship with Trident, since that is the embeddable browser component from Internet Explorer, but Edge really is a separate project
          • It's all about search and ads. IE / Edge failing so fucking hard is why we (win10 users) have ads in the start menu now.
        • Microsoft has one choice, and only one, to achieve significant penetration with Edge: open the source. There is nothing else that will help - nothing.

          Even that is not guaranteed. Open source Edge would have to compete against the equally open source Firefox.
          With people who only care about "free as in beer", the competition is Chrome. These people seem to be the majority. Chrome is based on open source Chromium, and there is a privacy-oriented fork of that called Iron. Sounds good but has little market share (I have not tried it out myself yet, so far I'm content with SeaMonkey ;)

          • by emil ( 695 )

            Firefox's Gecko really had performance problems until recently.

            Microsoft can write tight, fast code, and Gecko might be able to outright take, or at least be inspired by, innovations in Edge that they could see.

            When Ballmer called the GPL a virus, this is likely his chief fear.

      • It then gives you a blue button to click to open Edge, or a grey one you can click to install the browser you actually want to use.

        That's a new low.

        Sure about that? Hasn't Microsoft in the past, deliberately caused foreign programs, like browsers to malfunction for no reason?

      • Yes that is annoying. However, even after bypassing all that

        It then gives you a blue button to click to open Edge, or a grey one you can click to install the browser you actually want to use.

        That's a new low.

        No it's not.

        When GWX (Get Windows 10) was first released very first thing it did was to grabbed info from everybody sending it to 157.56.106.185

        157.56.106.185 as it was in my HOSTS file and the file (600K) never got out or sent.

      • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:5, Informative)

        by anegg ( 1390659 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @03:33PM (#57300606)
        Try creating a "local" account on a Windows 10 PC (Windows 10 Pro). First, the O/S automatically tries to have you create a "Microsoft" account. Next, after you have figured out where the option to create a local account is hiding and click the button to create a local account, the O/S presents a second "create account" dialog box to create a "Microsoft" account, with a blue glowing "Yes" button (default action) and a grey "No" button. To create the local account, you have to select the non-default "No" even though you just specified that you wanted to create a local account. How on earth a vendor thinks that this kind of manipulative behavior against the users of their product is ok is beyond me.
    • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:50AM (#57296996) Journal

      Chrome does the same thing when you open IE/Edge and navigate to google.com.

      No, Google the search engine gives you an ad for their product when you search for a competitor. I have no problem with Bing doing that either.

      The operating system itself giving you an ad for a competing product when you try to install something, however, is a different animal entirely.

      • Chrome does the same thing when you open IE/Edge and navigate to google.com.

        No, Google the search engine gives you an ad for their product when you search for a competitor. I have no problem with Bing doing that either.

        The operating system itself giving you an ad for a competing product when you try to install something, however, is a different animal entirely.

        Speaking of different animal entirely, your mistake was confusing Windows 10 for an operating system.

        In reality, pushing Edge is nothing more than the vendor pushing an ad for their product. The entire neutered "OS" has turned into little more than a marketing tool.

        • by ichthus ( 72442 )
          I'm a long time Linux user, and an avid Microsoft HATER, and even I think that saying Windows 10 is not an operating system is just asinine.
          • It's a steaming pile of spyware built on top of an arguably otherwise acceptable operating system. If we could have the latter without the former, I'd have very few complaints. But, since we can't, I remain completely uninterested in switching from desktop Linux (Gentoo + XFCE).
            • It's a steaming pile of spyware built on top of an arguably otherwise acceptable operating system. If we could have the latter without the former, I'd have very few complaints. But, since we can't, I remain completely uninterested in switching from desktop Linux (Gentoo + XFCE).

              Regardless Windows 10 is a "steaming pile of spyware," it is still an OS. Without an OS, you can't run a software which is programmed to be run on an OS. It is black and white answer in this case.

              • Either you missed the point or I didn't state it clearly enough. It isn't that W10 isn't an OS. Apart from hyperbole (great-great-great grandfather post) no one is claiming that. I am saying that it's a steaming pile of privacy-invading garbage piled on top of an OS.
            • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:5, Insightful)

              by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:02PM (#57299208) Homepage Journal

              It's a steaming pile of spyware built on top of an arguably otherwise acceptable operating system.

              Windows 10 is not first and foremost the spyware. We know this because if you are willing to volume license, you can get the OS without the spyware. Therefore, it's a halfway decent operating system which requires that you go to heroic lengths to avoid getting it with spyware. Still more than enough reason to avoid in general, IMO, but not quite the same thing.

              • Understood; otherwise, corporate America would never have given up Windows 7. Still, for the ordinary consumer, Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare, and for that reason I still stick with Linux wherever possible and Windows only when absolutely necessary.
            • Yep. That's the problem. I wouldn't have any problem if it was free with ads or paid and clean but, no, they can't allow that.
              If I could get Windows 10 without the spying and ads I would use it (despite the IMO horrible UI) as it is I'll stay on Win 7 for as long as I can
        • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Guybrush_T ( 980074 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @11:24AM (#57298148)

          Nope. When you go to bing/google, the offered service is free. That's why Ads are OK.

          Here, basically you pay for an OS that still gives you ads (compared to a free OS that doesn't ... really no question which one to install), but not only Ads, it also gets in the way when you try to install competing products. This is way nastier than having an ad in the corner of a web page because it means that Adware has ways to look at everything you are doing, vastly escaping the browser. This is a huge security issue.

          So you could argue that it's just Microsoft pre-installing Adware on your system to pay for part of the OS (just like Lenovo/Toshiba/... have been always doing). Still, that's the main reason why I started re-advocating for everyone to install Linux -- Windows is just not safe for everyone to use.

      • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:4, Interesting)

        by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:56PM (#57300294)

        AFAIK ChromeOS doesn't allow any other browsers at all!

    • That is Google.com doing that not Chrome.
      That is an issue of a web page detecting your browser that you connect to its site and decided to show additional content.

      What this seems to be doing, is intercepting particular OS CALLS AND ASKING YOU NOT TO RUN A COMPATIBLE PROGRAM

      • And this is Bing doing it on the first response. Interfering with the installer is a problem but the initial banner is just the Bing results exactly like Google does with Chrome.
    • Re:Whooptie doo (Score:4, Interesting)

      by aaronb1138 ( 2035478 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @10:14AM (#57297286)
      Hell, multiple Chrome ads and web applications actively *force* installation. They even intentionally circumvent centrally managed applications by installing directly into the USER's PROFILE when rights to install to SYSTEM are not allowed. It used to be a huge shitshow when I managed Citrix Metaframe and ZenApp infrastructure because of the combination of circumvention and Chrome's 10,000's of nested folders cache killed roaming profile performance.
      • by installing directly into the USER's PROFILE when rights to install to SYSTEM are not allowed.

        This is why Chrome is malware and not a web browser. It can install without admin privileges and, as you found out, goes around security measures.
    • by Thud457 ( 234763 )
      Shut up Edge! Your purpose is to pass the butter ^W^W^W install Chrome.
    • They even do this on my Surface 2 with WIndows RT which can't even run Chrome.

    • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      And some other apps push hard for you to install Chrome when you install that app.

    • Chrome does the same thing when you open IE/Edge and navigate to google.com.

      Not the same thing as the "much nastier trick" referred to in TFA, which is about Windows trying to stop the installation of something. Your example sounds merely like an advert appearing on a web page.

  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:45AM (#57296942)
    The cockblocking of competing products.
  • by SIGBUS ( 8236 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:47AM (#57296966) Homepage

    Every time I think Windows 10 can't get more insufferable, Microsoft reaches a new low. I guess they solved the malware problem - by baking the malware into the OS.

    While, unfortunately, I have to use one Windows 10 system in my office, fortunately it's the only one, and anything else is either Windows 7 or Linux. None of my personal machines have the misfortune of using 10, and as long as they keep doing things like this, none will.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • "Just following orders" didn't cut it at Nuremberg. If you're in a big company, your manager doesn't make the rules either, but does expect you to be productive. If you want a successful career, you might do better to focus on getting the job done (despite the rules), instead of slavishly following the rules and saying "not my fault nothing works". In every company, rules don't apply to top performers. Rules are for little people. Which do you want to be?
    • Since I search for a new browser approximately every 3 years, or when I get a new workstation, this isn't much of an imposition. And I know how to click through. I do it on Facebook, Amazon, and a multitude of other services. Notice how YouTube, Pandora, Iheartradio, Google Play, etc. pester you to sign up for their paid services , sometimes even after you have? All annoyances, none fatal or truly any more devious than any other marketing and sales pitch. Feh. Grow thicker skin, you're gonna need it.

    • by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Windows 10 is malware.That fact has been known for a few years.
      The remedy is simple : Just use Linux.

    • by Dan667 ( 564390 )
      I'm in the same boat, but I have to wonder what I'll decide to do when the windows 7 patches stop in a year or so. At this point using windows 10 is a non-starter so my options are to keep using windows 7 unpatched or go mac or linux. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but I am certain I have no interest in windows 10 unless they completely change their hostility to their Customers.
    • Every time I think Windows 10 can't get more insufferable, Microsoft reaches a new low.

      Ahhh but is it? Asking the user a question is a new low? And before you answer remember this "feature" is tied to the same setting that controls the Play Store's ability to just randomly install shit on your computer silently without asking and have it magically appear in your start menu.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:49AM (#57296978)

    Almost as if MS was slapped down for ... anti-competitive behavior under this same topic: browser integration into the OS.

    Nah. I must be having deja-vu again...

    • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:53AM (#57297032)

      Almost as if MS was slapped down for ... anti-competitive behavior under this same topic: browser integration into the OS.

      Nah. I must be having deja-vu again...

      Exactly what I'm thinking.. Um, You M$ guys/gals, you may not be old enough to remember, but M$ got slapped pretty hard for anti-competitive behavior with IE in the past in multiple countries. I suggest you tread lightly here.

      • Yes, but back then they had fewer lobbyists. They know better now. They have bought the politicians to make it legal!

      • by darkain ( 749283 )

        But, since companies are people too, doesn't Microsoft have the right to be forgotten!? That case never existed if nobody remembers!

      • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @12:51PM (#57299084)
        The consent decree shackling Microsoft after the IE bundling case expired in 2011 [seattletimes.com]. At the time it was made, a lot of us complained about it only lasting 9 years, when a similar consent decree against IBM [wsj.com] was in place for 40 years.

        Anyhow, bottom line is that stopping Microsoft's behavior this time around will require a new DoJ investigation, which if history is any guide will take more than a decade. Given the history, hopefully it'll be done quickly enough or the judges will be willing to grant restraining orders to prevent Edge's market share rising up to 90% as IE did.

        I still maintain that the best solution back in the 1990s would've been to break apart Microsoft into two companies - an OS company and an applications company. Then there would've been no reason for the OS (Windows) to favor Edge or Office (ever notice a trial starter version comes with Win 10?) or any other Microsoft application.
      • If the EU got on Google for anticompetitive practices regarding Android they could surely look into this too.
        I'm European and I for once think that would be a good use of my money
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:53AM (#57297038)

    Commenting on reddit is so much faster and safer.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:55AM (#57297058)

    This is easy to fix once you understand the malware's vector. Almost all of Microsoft's malware (and it realy is true for this particular one) requires that you run Windows, or else the malware doesn't actually get executed. If you don't run Windows, none of these problems actually exist for you.

  • Cliche, but true.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sqorbit ( 3387991 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:57AM (#57297078)
    I made the switch to Linux completely because of the recent updates to Windows. I finally got frustrated enough with dealing with it that both work and home are now completely Linux based, even for my kids. I've in some way been using Linux for years but kept Windows on my work laptops since we entirely based on Active Directory, Exchange and Sharepoint. I always kept Windows at home because a majority of my time was spent either gaming or just watching Netflix so there was never really any motivation to change. Windows 10 gave me the push to change though. A majority of the games I get from Steam are on linux. I play Minecraft with my daughters without issue. Netflix runs fine. RDP works fine for any server work I need to accomplish at work. I know it's cliche and no one really cares that a few users switch, but I was somewhat of a "fan" of Microsoft for awhile. Windows 10 completely destroyed that. Microsoft will continue to hold the market share and there's no worry that they are pissing off their users because they don't have to care. I just wonder if they will ever piss enough people off that someone will step up with a truly viable alternative. For now I'll happily keep Manjaro running (yes, flame on Arch users!)
    • by Akili ( 1497645 )
      My experience was very similar, except s/Windows 10/Windows 2000.

      It wasn't until XP started including DRM as part of Media Player, and began degrading functions (like searching for files), and the whole Windows ME debacle that I finally understood why there wasn't a Windows Tech Edition. I was not their customer, and never would be.

      I finally made it my New Year's Resolution in 2008 to cease using Windows and ended up switching to Gentoo Linux, and have been satisfied with that decision ever since. Sur
    • There isn't (and never will be) a complete alternative but at least Valve are paying the guys at Wine to make improvements to the compatibility of games so there's money (and good progress) being put into that.
      To this day Linux (in particular desktop environments) feels brittler to me than Windows. Many times there's updates that won't go smoothly or for some reason the X server stops working and I have to troubleshoot it but there may arrive the day when I feel that's better than Windows.
  • If you open Edge and search ..... using Bing

  • by ripvlan ( 2609033 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @09:59AM (#57297110)

    Is Edge really faster/better/cheaper? Or is that statement fake propaganda?

    • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @10:02AM (#57297136) Homepage Journal

      Is Edge really faster/better/cheaper? Or is that statement fake propaganda?

      It's fake. Edge is faster at some things, but not at all things. It's provably not better. And they both cost $0 so it's not cheaper.

    • Is Edge really faster/better/cheaper? Or is that statement fake propaganda?

      The real question is, are claims like this legally binding.

      Probably faster to go after Microsoft for false statements like this to curb bullshit featurecreep rather than try and go the anti-trust route (again)...

      • yes and, if they use their dominance to make it more difficult to find the competition, via confusing statements or tedious steps, are they back into the antitrust bucket?

        It's one thing to list Edge as the top choice (or even a link to a propaganda article touting the wonderfulness of Edge) in the search results. But injecting into the flow of a webpage feels like everything we don't want ISPs doing.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It's really power efficient at hardware-offload video playback. Which has little to nothing to do with Edge. That's what I remember from their earlier ads anyway.

  • As corporations have more and more rights to roll over individuals rights of privacy and freedom of harassment with impunity and politicians are in their pocket!
    Will there ever be an end to this trend?
  • Sort of OT But it really annoys me when I get pop-ups on Windows 10 asking me to rate their Calculator App. Seriously .. this happens.

  • How much shit are willing to put up with before you are willing to leave Windows? FFS!

  • There is currently only one Google result for "microsoft edge is evil". Time to correct that "problem". Edge is a failed browser, people remember IE, and don't want its new "incarnation" so are ignoring it droves. If only Mozilla wasn't evil either by murdering XUL. Luckily the hoarde of basilisks and waterfoxes have saved XUL.
  • It's still part of Windows 10, and is considered the best browser to use to download a better browser.
  • by kelemvor4 ( 1980226 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @10:21AM (#57297380)
    I don't understand. I thought the purpose in edge was just to provide users a tool to download the web browser they actually wanted to use. Has something changed?
    • They're just adding new features for their most popular use case. That's where most companies add new features.

  • Make the ungrateful users hunt the moving Chrome icon across the screen!

    Or better, hide it somewhere unspecified, under another name and make the user play hide-n-seek with it.

    That will surely make them love Edge more.
  • by Joshs922 ( 4821899 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @11:02AM (#57297872)
    Someone needs to open a shelter for battered Windows users where they can begin to heal and realize that they don't have to stay in an abusive relationship.
  • Is that really the perception Microsoft wants to convey here?
  • I really wish Google and Microsoft would stop one-upping each other on how obnoxiously they can nag users to try the other guys offerings. GO AWAY.

    I will choose my browser. You don't get a say. Make the better browser and people will use it. Nag us, and we're likely to turn away from BOTH of them. People don't like to be nagged. Stop it. Offer it, and let it sit there, people will decide on their own.

    At the end of the day, does this bull even matter? There's very little difference between the three

  • "If you open Edge and search for "Chrome" or "Firefox" using Bing,"
    Well that's ok then, pretty much nobody will see it.

  • This is Microsoft we are talking about - the epitome of despicable when it comes to for-profit organizations.
  • The new Microsoft isn't your father's Microsoft. They lied in court, illegally bundled and sought to undermine rival technology. The new Microsoft does all that and spams you too. Definitely not the same. The old Microsoft never stopped that low.

  • "If Internet Explorer is brave enough to ask to be your default browser, you can be brave enough to ask that girl out!".
  • Does the same thing happen if you go to install other application that Microsoft has applications for such as LibreOffice?

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