There has been some change between Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 (both Windows Insider Preview builds.) The build changelog makes a handful of mentions of changes to the protocol and file associations/ default apps system. Still, it neglected the captioned news You can no longer bypass Microsoft Edge using apps like EdgeDeflector. EdgeDeflector is an app that intercepts Microsoft- edge// links — plant throughout the Windows 10 and 11 shells and other Microsoft apps — and redirects them to regular https// links that open in your default web cybersurfer. Microsoft uses these links rather than regular web links to force users to open them in its Microsoft Edge web cybersurfer. When opened, Edge will aggressively push the user to set it as the default web cybersurfer. Edge will “ declutter” your cybersurfer settings, as Microsoft calls it, and unpin challengers from the taskbar and replace the pinned apps with Edge.
The million EdgeDeflector users were presumably noway further than a nuisance to Microsoft. Still, last month both the Brave and Firefox web cybersurfers either copied EdgeDeflector’s functionality or gestured it was on the roadmap. Firefox may be bleeding users by the millions, but the more-ethical cybersurfer still has nearly 200 million users. That news presumably did make Microsoft sit up and pay attention.
While the US decided not to take action against Microsoft on this point, the EU didn’t hold back. Microsoft agreed to hide shortcuts to Internet Explorer and show its customers in the EU the ignominious cybersurfer ballot screen. The dialog listed Internet Discoverer among challengers and asked them to choose what server they wanted to one-click install.
Microsoft had several “technical issues” that caused the ballot not to be displayed to millions of users. The EU wasn’t amused and issued forfeitures over Microsoft’s non-compliance with the ballot screen. The EU – Microsoft agreement saw the ballot screen retire at the end of 2014. At that point, the Google Chrome cybersurfer ( featured on the ballot screen) had become the leader on the desktop, and Internet Explorer was nowhere to be seen on the, also still a new order, mobile gadgets.
This brings us back to the moment. Windows 10 and 11 no longer watch about the dereliction web cybersurfer setting. Microsoft indeed removed the dereliction web cybersurfer setting from Windows 11. Rather than a single setting for the default web cybersurfer, users must set individual “ link associations” for the http// and https// protocols; as well as enter associations for the. html train type. This is a huge jump in complexity compared to the former design. It’s easily a customer-hostile move that sees Windows compromise its product usability to make it more delicate to use contending products. Moreover, Microsoft has added first-party gests like News and Interest in Windows 10 and Contraptions in Windows 11. It gave the features prominent positions on the taskbar. These “ web experiences”, as Microsoft states, point links to online news, weather, and other information. Search result links in the START menu and links transferred to the device from paired Samsung or Android gadgets are also affected.
Still, these features don’t use regular web links (https//). Rather, they use Microsoft- edge// links that only work with the company’s web cybersurfer. These links are also featured in other Microsoft apps and are planted around the Windows shell.
To fight back on this user-opposed development, EdgeDeflector was developed in 2017. It’s a bitsy operation that parses the Microsoft- edge// links and redirects them to regular https// links that it tells Windows to open in your default web cybersurfer. The user would simply need to install the app and choose it as the default for Microsoft- edge// links rather than Microsoft Edge. Over the last five times, the app has grown to a small 500000 users rebellion against Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices.
You can no longer set anything but Microsoft Edge as the protocol tutor for the Microsoft- edge// protocol. Or rather, you can choose between Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge (Insider Beta), and Microsoft Edge (Insider Dev). No third-party apps are allowed to handle the protocol.
You can’t change the default protocol association through registry changes, OEM partner customizations, variations to the Microsoft Edge package, hindrance withOpenWith.exe, or any other hackish workarounds.
Microsoft doesn’t indeed bother throwing up the “ An app dereliction was reset” error communication. It just quietly ignores the UserChoice registry keys for the protocol in the registry and opens Microsoft Edge rather. Windows still use the dereliction protocol associations to descry and present possible Edge beta or exercise builds. Windows will contend you use Microsoft Edge to a fault indeed if you brutalize your Windows installation and purify all traces of Microsoft Edge. Windows will open an empty UWP window and show an error communication rather than letting you use your preferred web cybersurfer.
This isn’t a bug in the Windows Insider exercise figure. Microsoft has made specific changes to how Windows handles the Microsoft- edge// protocol. (It looks to be about 8 KB of added collected law, although I can’t say for sure.) It has not made analogous anti-competitive changes to other lower-used Microsoft Edge specific protocols similar to Microsoft- edge-holographic// (for use with its stoked reality products), ms-xbl-3d8b930f// (Xbox Live services. These can still be changed and associated with other apps.
So, what does this mean for EdgeDeflector? The program will remain available for download. Immaculately, the company should cease its use of all Microsoft- edge// links. It’s user- foe and uncompetitive practice that regulators just haven’t caught up with yet.
Microsoft still charges 200 USD for a Windows license while contemporaneously filling the operating system with advertisements and crapware. Weeks before launch, Windows 11 wouldn’t indeed show the taskbar when it failed to display an announcement dialog.
Surely this inst the conduct of an attentive company that cares about its product presently. They’re prioritizing advertisements, bundleware, and service subscriptions over their users’ productivity.
For users, the stylish action is to complain to their original antitrust controller or switch to Linux. Your web cybersurfer is presumably the most important — if not the only — app you regularly use. Microsoft has made it clear that its precedences for Windows don’t align with its users’.
