Microsoft is removing frustrating standard browser controls offered by Windows 11 Microsoft has changed the way Windows 11 handles the switch from standard web browsers and thankfully reversed an unpopular decision is made while the operating system was still in pre-launch testing (in August).
A new preview version (trial version) of Windows 11 (Build 22509) now allows you to change the default browser of the operating system with a single click; this is how it should be (and the scheme of things in Windows 10).
What’s going on in Windows 11 right now? Well, Microsoft has come up with a pretty kinky way to give users more precise control over which browser opens which files, which as we observed at the time of its creation was (and still is) fundamentally a nightmare.
You have the option to change your default browser outside of Edge the first time you install and open an alternative browser such as Chrome or Firefox. If you choose this alternative, be sure to check the “Always use this app” box. If you don’t check the box, you will no longer see this message and will instead have to go to Settings and manually change the default browser.
The problem is that currently with Windows 11 Chrome (or some other alternative that you want to use instead of the built-in Edge browser) it needs to be configured for different file types: HTML, HTM, PDF, SHTML, WEBP, HTTP, HTTPS, and more. As mentioned above, Microsoft’s theory is that this allows for more precise control.
But what that really represents for the vast majority is a lot of clicks and changes, but luckily, as Rafael Rivera tweeted (via The Verge) to point out, Windows 11 now has a simple “Define default “in a new trial version. Button. ‘for browsers, realigning things to how Windows 10 works.
Aaron Woodman, vice president of Windows marketing at Microsoft, told The Verge: “In Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509, released on the Dev Channel on Wednesday, we have simplified Windows Insider’s ability to be the ‘default browser’ for configuration applications. for HTTP ::, HTTPS:, .HTM and .HTML ”.
Analysis: This should never have happened in the first place
Note that this new scheme is only being tested now, but hopefully, the change will eventually be applied to the full version of Windows 11. As mentioned above, Microsoft’s argument to have more control over the settings default based on user feedback does not work. at all. Obviously, that was, well, for now, it’s still a way to make sure that Edge keeps getting pushed up.
With all of the various Edge announcements which, as we saw earlier this week, have hit new lows in terms of anti-Chrome pop-ups (including “This browser is like this 2008!”).
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Microsoft, it won’t get in the way of people using their browser (or anything else), it will just get in the way and it will probably have the opposite effect, if at all. . . Maybe the occasional pop-ups won’t bother anyone, but the amount of promotional activity combined with software changes like this whole defaults debacle is dangerous ground.
At least that decision has now been overturned for the default Windows 11 browser, and we expect the change to happen sooner rather than later.
