Windows 11 Will Soon Block All Default Browser Workarounds

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
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It looks like Microsoft REALLY wants you to use Edge.

They have introduced edge specific hyperlinks in website links from various Microsoft applications. Up until now it has been convoluted, but possible to workaround these edge only links, but rumor has it that this is about to be blocked.

This is exactly the kind of removal of user choice I absolutely hate. I hope this is not true.
 
I don't mind Edge, but they keep sneaking in these stupid settings:

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sed8em said:
One of the many things that pushed me into the direction of OS X. Mac isn't perfect, but some of the shenanigans MS has been pulling have been too irritating.
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I cant even think of one single moment in my history of using Microsoft products where I was like, "Ya, man... I could really just switch to Apple and all of my wildest dreams will come true".
 
It's like, imagine you own an Android phone and someone calls you. But it rings on someone else's iPhone. It's just like that.
 
TheHig said:
Fair enough but I feel like setting whatever default browser you want should work for everything.
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when you install FF and it ask to set to default, everything but this one is changed automatically, for now. chrome doesnt have an automatic set as default like FF, it pulls up windows settings and you have to manually do it(PITA). since FF can do most they should be able to do the last one and chrome could incorporate it but havent for some reason. it was silly that the remove the one click setting from 10. maybe theres enough noise that they might change back.
 
Lol does anyone actually care about w11? Aside from the few $MSFT holders here?

I'm still not on w10, so can safely say the next rig will be Linux and if I can't emulate and somehow need this cancerous malware of an O$, it'll be a dual boot.
 
Tengis said:
I cant even think of one single moment in my history of using Microsoft products where I was like, "Ya, man... I could really just switch to Apple and all of my wildest dreams will come true".
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Where did I say that?
 
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I suppose the market share they gain will make up for the slap on the wrist they will take from EU or US anti trust litigation. I'm betting they did a risk/reward analysis and ran it by the legal team. Legal team be like: "The worst that would happen is X"... exec: "Worth it"
 
N4CR said:
Lol does anyone actually care about w11? Aside from the few $MSFT holders here?
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It's not only the stock holders that get more, it's the techs that have to keep the garbage running. Windows 10 has steadily increased my work over time as it has gotten less and less stable with the gross mismanagement it has had, and Windows 11 looks to continue that tradition with Microsoft tripling down on their stupidity.

N4CR said:
I'm still not on w10, so can safely say the next rig will be Linux and if I can't emulate and somehow need this cancerous malware of an O$, it'll be a dual boot.
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Unless you have the need for some exceedingly proprietary application that needs stupid things like security dongles, you won't miss Windows at all. I dumped Windows for Linux when I built my new workstation, and outside of some very old software that doesn't even run right on modern versions of Windows, I had absolutely no desire to go back. Though that being said, I've used Linux in other roles like my routers and servers for the past 20 years, so it may just be my comfort level with it. I've so far had very few issues running Linux as my daily driver, and even the issues I did have were less complex than having to unbrick Windows after a failed automatic update, which we all know happens every other month over in Microsoft land these days.

My 3D printer server running Windows 10 doing nothing at all except occasionally getting a job to print has bricked itself no fewer than 6 times from failed automatic updates. Two times of which were so bad that I had to flatten it and reinstall.
 
TheHig said:
Man is someone going to have to sue Microsoft again like the internet explorer case from way back?
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Such a case would go nowhere today. In general, a private business can do as they please. They are welcome to lock things to their own walled garden if they want. See Apple and the iPhone as a good example. The only reason Microsoft was hit with regulation was because they were found to be a monopoly. Well you'd never be able to make that argument fly today. Apple is very large in the personal computer space, and smart phones are an even bigger market, one MS has no presence in. So trying to argue they have a monopoly on computers is just not going to fly in court today. Given that, they can lock shit down if they like.

Not trying to argue it is a good idea for them to, but the reality is they can and it isn't something that a lawsuit is going to stop these days.
 
I finally said fuck Microdogshit. About 6 months ago I built a new gaming system. I'm using Linux Mint, and it works great, both games and browers.

Even Linus Tech Tips is now using Linux for his daily driver.

 
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Tengis said:
I cant even think of one single moment in my history of using Microsoft products where I was like, "Ya, man... I could really just switch to Apple and all of my wildest dreams will come true".
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My 10 core CPU, 32 core GPU, 8TB SSD, 64GB RAM laptop with a variable refresh rate, Mini LED screen and multiple thunderbolt 4 ports that runs scientific workloads with the fan barely running and insane battery life is pretty dreamy. It is so fast that it runs X86 programs through emulation significantly faster than almost any PC laptop runs them natively. There is no PC laptop even remotely in this class.
 
paradoxical said:
My 10 core CPU, 32 core GPU, 8TB SSD, 64GB RAM laptop with a variable refresh rate, Mini LED screen and multiple thunderbolt 4 ports that runs scientific workloads with the fan barely running and insane battery life is pretty dreamy. It is so fast that it runs X86 programs through emulation significantly faster than almost any PC laptop runs them natively. There is no PC laptop even remotely in this class.
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I've honestly never even had an inkling of interest in Apple products. Their new laptops universally look like they have good reviews... the price point basically guarantees I will never touch one though unless we go hang out and you slide it across the table.

I use my desktop for the occasional gaming session, Photoshop, SolidWorks... Meh 🤷‍♂️
 
Tengis said:
I've honestly never even had an inkling of interest in Apple products. Their new laptops universally look like they have good reviews... the price point basically guarantees I will never touch one though unless we go hang out and you slide it across the table.

I use my desktop for the occasional gaming session, Photoshop, SolidWorks... Meh 🤷‍♂️
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I have an overclocked 9900k and this laptop annihilates it at Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Lightroom. They are expensive but they honestly pay for themselves for me in terms of the capabilities they unlock for my workflow. Gaming obviously I do on my desktop, Mac still sucks for that.
 
N4CR said:
Lol does anyone actually care about w11?
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As an Enterprise field repair tech that images, deploys, and supports systems for a huge power company, I have to care about Win11 because it will be in use at a corporate level sometime within the next couple of years. I've had it running on one of the hot spares for a while now: I think it's fine, operationally. Few gripes about nuances with changes to the quick-access/right-click menus, but overall, I see nothing major that will kill productivity from sheer end-user confusion and frustration like Win8 presented...glad they made the decision to skip Win8/8.1 where I work.
 
Imagine if Microsoft said you had to use their built in image viewing program (which is really rudimentary) or had to use Skype/Teams as your ONLY chat program. Same thing. This should be obvious to someone at Microsoft how stupid it is.
 
LOCO LAPTOP said:
I never took Linux seriously... Until W11.

I loaded a old laptop with it to learn to fully use it. Don't think ill be able to daily use one for gaming but it's going to be a step.
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I dual booted Windows 10 and Ubuntu for 3 years before I was completely comfortable with Linux. It takes time, but now I just run Ubuntu on my main machine, and it's actually way better than Windows for a lot of stuff.

Almost all software is free, lot of customization is possible, it's stable and fast, there are sometimes issues but you can fix them (unlike Windows where there are bugs for years with no answer).

Gaming is in a pretty good spot now with Proton. I would say about 80% of Windows games are playable on Linux, maybe with some small issues here and there. The biggest problem is online games and anti-cheat, but Valve is fixing this for the Steam Deck.

And you don't have to deal with Microsoft bullshit, not letting you change the browser, spying on your computer, and all that other stuff.
 
Wow. So a rumored update will have some built-in system hyperlinks always open in Edge. Super burden going on here. Remember when the built-in links didn't open in a browser, but a dedicated help window? You didn't have any choice then, did you? Color me skeptical of the whole "Sky is falling, Microsoft is evil" line.
 
jardows said:
Wow. So a rumored update will have some built-in system hyperlinks always open in Edge. Super burden going on here. Remember when the built-in links didn't open in a browser, but a dedicated help window? You didn't have any choice then, did you? Color me skeptical of the whole "Sky is falling, Microsoft is evil" line.
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I kind of wish they'd bring back the old help system, to be honest.
 
pendragon1 said:
when you install FF and it ask to set to default, everything but this one is changed automatically, for now. chrome doesnt have an automatic set as default like FF, it pulls up windows settings and you have to manually do it(PITA). since FF can do most they should be able to do the last one and chrome could incorporate it but havent for some reason. it was silly that the remove the one click setting from 10. maybe theres enough noise that they might change back.
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Someone in Mozilla spent a lot of time reverse engineering all the stuff MS does via the set your default browser settings page (in old versions of windows this was a simple registry entry; MS changed it to something that needed done via control panel/settings to stop crapware from associating everything on your system to open in it automatically). Firefox then incorporated the work and is essentially daring MS to change something to block/disable it. Google is probably waiting to see what MS decides to do before duplicating it in Chrome. I suspect MS will be forced to do something to block what FF came up with eventually; if only because if they don't eventually we'll be back to crapware changing your settings so every file on your system opens in it instead of whatever you want to be used.
 
Edge gives me eyestrain not sure why probably something in the code but I haven't tried it with the Start is Back version having the task bar moved. If Edge looked just like Chrome and used the same themes I would use it.
 
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Motley said:
I finally said fuck Microdogshit. About 6 months ago I built a new gaming system. I'm using Linux Mint, and it works great, both games and browers.
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As a gaming machine how many games are actually supported?
 
Motley said:
I finally said fuck Microdogshit. About 6 months ago I built a new gaming system. I'm using Linux Mint, and it works great, both games and browers.

Even Linus Tech Tips is now using Linux for his daily driver.

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TheToE! said:
As a gaming machine how many games are actually supported?
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The only things that don't work are pure DX12 things (CP2077, for instance) or ones with complex anti-cheat (CoD games are a good example). I'd be 100% linux but Star Citizen is buggy as hell on it at the moment (Running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).

Others take some tweaking, but it's come a VERY long way. VERY VERY long way.
 
In my opinion, as far as the help system goes, they should have the right to force Edge there.

It'd be unreasonable to expect them to constantly make sure all of their help pages work properly in other browsers, especially considering how some other browser vendors (google?) trick the typical clueless user to install them as default.

However, in a perfect world, this type of URI would go something like "microsoft-help://" to clearly define this and to prevent MS from overstepping that boundary.
 
Tengis said:
I cant even think of one single moment in my history of using Microsoft products where I was like, "Ya, man... I could really just switch to Apple and all of my wildest dreams will come true".
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Exactly - you're just swapping one control freak (Microsoft) for another (ios-style Store lock-in is likely to be coming to arm Mac near you soon, once they drop x86 compatibility)

Pay us $100 to be able to run compile apps on your iPhone...i mean, iMacl
 
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Tengis said:
I've honestly never even had an inkling of interest in Apple products. Their new laptops universally look like they have good reviews... the price point basically guarantees I will never touch one though unless we go hang out and you slide it across the table.

I use my desktop for the occasional gaming session, Photoshop, SolidWorks... Meh 🤷‍♂️
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The new Apple laptops are not cheap... but ya man do they perform vs x86 mobile stuff. Give desktop chips a run for their money in a laptop form factor. I imagine at some point they will get around to an actual new Apple chip desktop... I think a lot of people that thought Apple would have no chance making a Desktop chip to rival Intel and AMD are starting to feel differently, perhaps not thinking different but feeling it. lol
 
lopoetve said:
The only things that don't work are pure DX12 things (CP2077, for instance) or ones with complex anti-cheat (CoD games are a good example). I'd be 100% linux but Star Citizen is buggy as hell on it at the moment (Running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).

Others take some tweaking, but it's come a VERY long way. VERY VERY long way.
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Good to see the Star Citizen experience is the same regardless of OS. ;) jk
 
There's no perfect solution moving forward. You're either going to have to deal with the hassles of Microsoft, deal with the hassles of Linux, deal with the hassles of Apple, or deal with the hassles of Google. If you're a gamer, that narrows it down. You can luckily just stick with Windows 10 for now, although you have to wonder if they won't do something similar with it.
 
lopoetve said:
The only things that don't work are pure DX12 things (CP2077, for instance) or ones with complex anti-cheat (CoD games are a good example). I'd be 100% linux but Star Citizen is buggy as hell on it at the moment (Running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).

Others take some tweaking, but it's come a VERY long way. VERY VERY long way.
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How big is the performance delta typically for things that DO work these days?

It's been a while since I did any testing on my own, but when I did, there was still a 20+% performance hit in Linux compared to windows (and sometimes that was +++++) even for native ports, let alone using Proton/DXVK.

Has that improved at all?

I still dual boot to Windows simply because I can't afford to lose any performance at all if I want to keep certain 4k titles above 60fps.
 
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