New Windows driver blocks software from changing default web browser

It doesn’t seem like your computer, does it? It’s like you’re a user in their enterprise.

BS like this has made it impossible to maintain a consistent experience for my parents who aren't super tech savvy. It's so frustrating helping them over the phone for hours only to realise that windows just on a whim changed major settings without any user interactions. Changed theirs OS to Debian now. Much better.

I use Kagi, and so far, it seems to casually switch it back with that message about once a month.

Yeah that's why you can't give your computer to Fucking m$

Set it via group policy (local or domain) and forget about it.

In principal, the change is good for reasons you mentioned. However microsoft has :

• bypassed any default screens in the past, allowing edge to be set default without user input.
• has added very annoying screens when changing default applications asking the user multiple times if they are sure.
• has added special protocols for applications and set edge as default browser to bypass default application settings in all office applications ( outlook, teams, word, ... ).

They just can not be trusted with this, they have proven this in the past...

Posts like this reveal how many people believe every word a megacorp PR dept announces

Considering that Edge makes itself the default browser and even PDF reader on its own every few weeks, I don't trust Microsoft to keep Edge from taking over as default without user input.

Hahahahahaha, right, right. Hahahaha

And I did read the article. No, this is MS continually pushing users into Edge.

"Kolbicz believes this change may be to comply with Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA)" (emphasis mine).

"BleepingComputer contacted Microsoft about the lockdown of these Registry keys in March, but they said they had nothing to share at this time."

The "choose the default app" modal has special code that makes it say "HEY BTW EDGE EXISTS CLICK HERE" If the modal is for choosing your default browser. It is absolutely about control.

So many headline readers. To be honest, 99% of these problems that folks rage about could be resolved with a group policy (local or domain). The problem is, Windows is like 73% of worldwide OS usage, so like it or not, there is a lot of trying to protect the user from themselves. Team Linux can't fathom that because they come from the perspective that they can build thier experience from the ground up to be exactly as they like. The VAST majority of people don't want that, they want something that works and they don't really care what happens behind the curtains. I would wager that 90% of users could care less what browser they use (or would even notice if it changed!) as long as they still had access to their bookmarks.

I would like to share a positive experience from this new driver the article is about. I use notepad++ and setting it as the default was kind of a pain in the butt. It would work sometimes, but not consistently, and often depended on a registry hack or symlink to work. Now with the new interface for default apps, as long as I have the new Windows Notepad app installed when I change the defaults for "open with", it just works! For all the file extensions, all the time. Honestly it's a much better experience and it's ACCESSIBLE to the lay person.

Lol .... you can bypass the Windows restriction by deleting the System32 folder

This is the way

Yep, I just switched yesterday.

If you want to keep your computer, yeah.

Might be rough, but, like... Windows7 isnt supported anymore.

Linux Linux?

Okay so KDE was okay 5-10 years ago. Ultimately crawled back to Windoze. What's in vogue in 2024?

I said literally like two days ago "fine then; keep using windows until they take a feature you rely on and all your data is either gone, or trapped in an impenetrably useless shell"

Theres no practical value to being right, but fsmn does it feel good.

Uh, sorry about your shit. If you want to still have your computer in a year; switch to linux

Awesome tool, that one. Not often we use it (and usually inside a virtual application environment), but it's great to rely on...

Why aren't you using group policy?

You can change the default Browser to open links in Teams. I had no problems opening links in Teams or Outlook since I changed it.

Maybe it's because websites should ask user before enabling cookies?

I don't think the goal is to lock you into their browser, since you still can change it through the GUI. It seems to be part of the recent push to block software which changes hidden settings. The end goal being to lock down the OS and prevent users from disabling features MS wants to push onto them.

That's one take, except even the article notes that's a weak argument.

You kidding? That means First party is now a protected method which will absolutely result in the expected outcome like they have done with every “feature” update blocking work arounds.

Incomprehensibly stupid, because all they have to do is ask the user to confirm. Forcing through their own default instead of asking is malicious.

We know. You keep telling us.

Don’t worry, someone will port it to Linux some day.

@Naich @ardi60 Totally agree.

I mean, Windows is just such a weird proprietary distro.

It doesn't use the latest Linux kernel, or even a mainstream POSIX-compliant alternative like BSD. Instead, you have a strange CP/M-like monolithic kernel — I think they used to call it DOS — that's been extended to behave more like VAX and MP/M.

It also doesn't use either X11 or Wayland as a display manager. Instead, you have an incredibly unintuitive overblown WINE-like subsystem handling the display.

Because it doesn't use Linux, Wayland, or X11, you are limited in the desktop environment that you can use. There's really limited support for KDE, despite the best efforts of volunteers.

Instead, there's a buggy and error-prone proprietary window manager that ships with it by default. A bit like how Canonical tried to ship Unity as it's default desktop environment with Ubuntu.

And confusingly, they've named that window manager Windows as well!

That window manager lacks many of the features an everyday Gnome or KDE user would expect out of the box.

It also doesn't ship with a standard package manager, and most of the packages ship as x86 binaries, so installing software works differently to how an everyday Linux user would expect.

There's also only one company maintaining all of these projects. It insists on closed source, and it has a long history of abandoning its projects.

And sure, if you're a nerd who's into alternative operating systems, toying with Windows can be fun.

But if your grandpa is used to Linux, frankly he'll be utterly bamboozled by the Windows experience.

I'm sorry to be glib, because Windows does have some nice ideas.

But.

Windows on the desktop just isn't ready for your average, everyday Linux user.

Linux #Windows #PC

It's still going to artificially inflate Edge's numbers from tech illiterate users that don't know how to change it. There's a significant number of users out there that will put up with Microsoft shitting down their throat before bothering to expend the few minutes it would take to learn how to change the settings themselves. The few that do try to figure it out will find Edge directing them to Bing which will make every effort to convince them not to do it. Meanwhile, Edge will steal all their bookmarks and tabs from Chrome, in order to further encourage users to just give up and use Edge.

It's all calculated "dark patterns" shit, and it works. Microsoft counts on these people being so easy to corral.

And you can bet your ass after they implement this, they will push an update that "accidentally" resets the default back to Edge for everyone. Just to "clear the board".

it stops malware from doing it

There are many different ways to prevent that apart from straight up removing the functionality. Another tactic Microsoft uses is trying to convince you there is only ever one way to secure the system and they "have no choice" if they want to keep their users safe.

It's like saying the only way to keep a plane from being hi-jacked is to handcuff every passenger to their chair. It's bullshit.

It's pretty much a program running in OS kernel space to handle specific function calls which need low level system access. Most hardware needs custom drivers to work because they need to interact with those low level OS components, so that's why they're mostly associated with hardware.

A lot of antiviruses use custom drivers to intercept and inspect program behavior to look for viruses, etc

Just a low-level filter that inspects and vetos things (think anti virus)

That's on purpose.

Microsoft is the OG. The other two are just imitators. The only reason Microsoft happens to step carefully. Was a little thing that happened in the late 1990s. That all penalties were largely waived for. But still it frightened them enough to behave better for a short while.

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