(Newswire.net — November 30, 2021) — Dona Apollo works as a copywriter and web developer for the professional writing essaywriterfree.net. She is interested in technologies that give her inspiration to write her own articles and short stories.
Microsoft is taking massive action against programs that bypass the Edge browser. Newswire reveals what is behind the new “browser war”.
The Windows 11 operating system and the Edge browser it contains form an almost perfect software package – at least in the eyes of their manufacturer Microsoft. The software giant from Redmond, Washington is apparently so convinced of its browser that it is returning to a bad habit and increasingly blocking third-party programs. After a developer publicly denounced Microsoft’s methods, the company shot back. Newswire has the information.
Click orgy: change the default browser
Anyone who has already carried out the free update to Windows 11 and then wanted to make their favorite browser the standard browser knows the problem: Microsoft has made the process unnecessarily complicated in the latest Windows and thus gives the impression that Edge users are switching from browser to want to scare off. Instead of changing the standard browser with just one click, as was the case with Windows 10, those willing to change have to perform the process separately for different Internet protocols and file types – that smells like a chicane. If the standard browser can still be changed relatively easily with the Newswire instructions, it looks different from the so-called system browser.
EdgeDeflector: Simply bend the left
The system browser is a Microsoft trick with which websites can only be opened with Edge, even with a “foreign” standard browser: Windows creates all internal Internet links – for example in Windows search, in Microsoft apps, or also in the new widget bar of Windows 11 – not in the regular https: // format, but uses the proprietary protocol Microsoft-edge: // and thus systematically bypasses the standard browser selected by Windows users. On the other hand, the EdgeDeflector program, for example, has helped so far: By allowing itself to be selected as the administrator (“handler”) for the exclusive protocol and “bending” the links to be opened into the standard format, the corresponding websites were redirected to the standard browser.
However, in the current preview versions of the Windows Insider Program, Microsoft has apparently found a way to block the functionality of the popular tool, because EdgeDeflector no longer works since Build 22494. As developer Daniel Aleksandersen explains in his blog, the software giant apparently made major changes to the exact point in the program code that is responsible for handling the exclusive links. The problem does not yet exist in the stable Windows 11 version 22000, which is used on most PCs.
Preferential treatment from Edge
It is not surprising that Microsoft programs like EdgeDeflector are a thorn in the side. After all, the tool now has half 100000 users. The reaction of the program developer, who accuses Microsoft of an aggressive preference for its Edge browser, is correspondingly upset. If the technical changes in Windows 11 actually aim to block other system browsers, that would be a relapse into the unfortunate times of browser wars. Because the Chromium-based Brave browser and the popular Firefox have now copied or announced the technology. Firefox still has around 200 million active users, despite recently falling user numbers. Aleksandersen suspects that this could have accelerated Microsoft’s move.
“Troubleshooting”: Microsoft counters criticism
It is unlikely that EdgeDeflector will work again in the future. In any case, developer Aleksandersen does not want to deliver any more updates as long as Microsoft does not change its position, because that makes “destructive changes to Windows” necessary. But that is probably not to be expected. Compared to The Verge, Microsoft has now responded to the criticism and defended its measure. Accordingly, Windows 10 and 11 allow all applications and services including numerous web browsers. At the same time, they want to offer certain “end-to-end customer experiences” there, as with the Windows search, and they are “not intended to be redirected”. The fronts seem hardened: While critics such as Aleksandersen demand freedom of browser choice for all Internet links in Windows, Microsoft regards links in its own apps and services as sovereign territory and tools such as EdgeDeflector as malware: “If we find out about an undesired redirect,” he said Corporation, “let’s post a bug fix”.
Alternative MSEdgeRedirect
If you don’t want to go without your favorite browser when opening system links, you can use the MSEdgeRedirect from Robert Maehl. The freeware of the WhyNotWin11 developer does not rely on the Microsoft Edge handler but intercepts the command line arguments of the Microsoft browser in order to redirect links from the news, the search, and the weather forecast to the standard browser.
The program still has beta status, but in the test of this article, it already worked in the affected Windows 11 developer preview – and was only noticed because it occasionally opened both browsers. After the silent installation, the program nests in the information area of the taskbar and “bends” system links back to the standard browser