Microsoft Stops Forcing Users To Use Edge In The EU

In the future, Microsoft will no longer require users of its Windows 11 operating system to use its own Edge browser when they click on links in internal system features. However, only users in Europe will benefit from the change.

Change in the preview

In principle, the user can decide to use a different standard browser. But if you clicked on a link in widgets or in the result lists of the Windows search field, Edge still opened. In the current test versions of the operating system, Microsoft has begun to change this and redirect all corresponding actions to the user’s desired browser.

However, this does not apply to all Windows users, only those based in Europe. “In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links,” said recent build 23531 release notes.

What should be pleasant for users in this country is of course irritating for users in other regions, who might also like to have all the content in the browser of their choice. Questions from colleagues at The Verge magazine at Microsoft as to why the change was only granted to EU users have so far remained unanswered.

Be careful with Brussels

So one can basically only speculate about the motives: Obviously, it is very important to Microsoft to promote its own browser via the operating system. However, this practice has already gotten the company into a lot of trouble with the competition authorities – back then, this method helped a lot in dethroning the market-leading browser Netscape Navigator with Internet Explorer.

And even now people seem to be particularly careful, especially when dealing with the EU’s competition watchdogs. This is also shown by the recent announcement that the Teams communications platform will no longer be bundled with the Office package in order to ease the pressure from Brussels.