Microsoft Relents, Makes It Easier to Switch Your Default Browser

After early reviews confirmed that Windows 11 would come with an much more labyrinthine course of for switching your default browser than the one required in earlier variations, the corporate has seemingly reversed course, now permitting customers to modify browsers with the press of a single button.

Back in August, numerous retailers reported on Microsoft’s diabolical plan to make sure that customers’ makes an attempt to set something however Edge as their browser have been all however foiled. The course of initially concerned an early setup immediate that appeared when customers have been first putting in a brand new browser that necessitated toggling an “always use this app,” change, or danger having to undergo a convoluted multi-step course of later in the event that they needed to make use of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, or others.

The choice was an unprovoked act of aggression within the browser wars—one which customers and developers alike have been none too happy about. But now Microsoft seems to have modified course, confirming to The Verge that the brand new browser modifications, first noticed by EarTrumpet Windows app developer Rafael Rivera, are certainly actual and at present being examined.

“In the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 released to the Dev Channel on Wednesday, we streamlined the ability for a Windows Insider to set the ‘default browser’ to apps that register for HTTP:, HTTPS:, .HTM, and .HTML,” Aaron Woodman, vp of Windows advertising and marketing, instructed The Verge. “Through the Windows Insider Program you will continue to see us try new things based on customer feedback and testing.”

While the app and browser switches are at present being examined, there’s no phrase but on once they’ll formally turn out to be obtainable to the hundreds of customers who’re nonetheless apparently fairly steamed about Microsoft’s willpower to undermine their preferences and restrict their capability to stray outdoors of the corporate’s personal ecosystem. It’s an anticompetitive world on the market and Microsoft actually tried it.