- Users of Google Chrome on Windows 10 and 11 are reporting that they have suddenly found themselves using Microsoft Edge, with their Chrome browsing sessions appearing in Edge.
- This may be due to a bug or an accidentally clicked-through dialog box related to a feature in Edge that imports browsing data from Chrome.
- The setting, called “Import browsing data from Chrome,” continually imports data from Chrome every time Edge is launched, unlike the one-time import offered for Firefox.
- There have been concerns about Microsoft’s tactics for pushing its own browser, including notifications, pop-ups, and full-screen messages promoting Edge and Bing.
- Microsoft has become more aggressive in pushing various subscriptions and features in recent years, making a “clean” Windows install feel less so.
- It remains unclear whether the Edge data-import issue is intentional or a bug, highlighting concerns about Microsoft’s methods for promoting its own software.
Adobe did something similar. It did an invisible update, but suddenly all downloaded PDFs open in acrobat, even if you have a different default app for that, and you have to dig into some obscure settings to make it fuck off.
“We hope you like the new reader layout” Really? I don’t remember asking you a goddamn thing.
Let them fight! Both are bad for tt
No Duh
It’s litterally just another Chromium except with Hardware Acceleration capability that Google Chrome lacks. You can’t watch real 1080p Netflix on Google Chrome in 90% of desktops.
Both are cancer, but at least Microsoft is pushing out less internet standard monopoly bullshit like Google does… well unless you look into them blocking swapping the default browser on windows lol.
Edge needs to calm the fuck down.
All your personal data belong to us.
Fuck I really have to switch to linux. Shit’s accelerating I wouldn’t be surprised if this is just the top of the iceberg of what microsoft is doing, analyzing, logging and transmitting all sort of stuff.
Have fun when your brightness slider breaks for whatever dumbfuck reason
Over a year now, mine still hasn’t :)
please do, you won’t regret it!
and if for some reason you need w*ndows, use this free(as in freedom) software to see(and block) what each app is sending and to where.
Ballmer’s microsoft atleast had some pride not to pester their users this way…
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
developers developers developers developers
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Have both for work and prefer Edge
L for using chrome honestly
Those eyeballs are disturbing 👁️👄👁️
🧿🫦🧿
I think that governments should be tackling both Edge and Chrome at the same time. One of them for underhanded tactics, another for being a monopoly. Tackling only one of them is not enough.
I also think that Microsoft’s strategy is worse than just underhanded - it stinks stupidity from a distance. It’s clearly backfiring - this is not the first Browser Wars any more, people nowadays have a good grasp on what a browser is supposed to be. And while some pressure might convert a few users, too much pressure is bound to create resistance, even on users that would be otherwise inclined to follow you like cattle.
All the big tech firms do this shit all over the place because are sound asleep at the wheel.
I was against all regulation and IP at some point, and yes, in such a situation MS would have much less power, because nobody would buy, say, Windows, only pirate it. Similar with many other products.
But the next best thing is to split and regulate the crap out of Apple, Google, MS etc.
But then the question arises:
When, say, regulators split AT&T, they did have some understanding of what they were doing.
Today all these companies are dealing in things which most lawmakers are unable to comprehend and won’t ever be able.
So maybe the way to deal with this all still is in aggressive action against IP laws, and not in anti-monopoly regulations, simply because there’s no way socially to make the majority of people - the pool from which lawmakers come - understand what exactly they are regulating.
Yup. In this case
- roach motel - it’s considerably easier to switch to Edge than from Edge
- appeal to emotion + appeal to authority + appeal to false authority* - “we recommend Edge, chrust us”
*those are technically fallacies. However, by trying to convince a user on irrational grounds to do something, they become a dark pattern.
Fallacies are called that because they are effective but not based in logic. They are the dark patterns of thought, rather than technology.
They are the dark patterns of thought, rather than technology.
That’s brilliant. Yes, it’s exactly this.
Had to set up a new laptop for someone over the weekend and Jesus they just won’t stop begging you not to switch.
Search for another browser in the URL/search bar, gigantic banner that pushes the actual search results off the page: “There’s no need to switch browsers, Edge is safe, fast, etc etc etc”
Click the download button for Chrome’s installer, a pop-up notification shows up: “Edge is built on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust and security of Microsoft” (fucking lol)
Go to switch the default browser in settings, another pop-up shows up again explaining that Edge is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I have to click either “Try Edge (recommended)” or “switch anyway”.
Then I spend 30 minutes navigating their maze of a settings app to change a bunch of ad preferences, etc.
Then I spend another 30 minutes editing registry entries to disable Cortana, Bing search in the search bar, recommended apps.
God damn I’m glad I switched to Linux.
That’s awful.
…my mum’s laptop being unable to run W10/W11 was a blessing in disguise then. I’m glad that I don’t need to manage this sort of junk.
And then once a quarter as part of their “feature update” they’ll ask if you’re suuuure you don’t want to change your default browser to Edge instead of your normal browser.
And if you need to use Microsoft Teams for work it will ignore your preferences and open links in edge by default, so you’ll have to find and disable that, too.
Just found this setting earlier in the day, before seeing your comment. That was annoying and such an unnecessary grab on Microsoft’s part.
Regional settings > English UK
Bam, most of that shit is taken care of
And the same for a domain joined PC. Fresh install of Windows 11, open edge, find that you are already signed into edge on a Microsoft account that Windows helpfully created for you that mirrors your domain account.
You told edge that you do not want to transfer over your data. And it says okay but you’ll notice a little blue hyperlink that says manage above that.
And if you click that it tells you all the stuff it’s going to copy over anyway.
So you sign out of that and you untick all of the boxes and you close edge and you reopen it and you find that you are still signed in to your Microsoft account that was created for you with your domain credentials in Bing search and you have to sign out of that as well.
Edge has created an account for you, signed you in in two separate locations, and automatically set itself to ingest all of your account credentials and it does not even tell you what it has done unless you click through multiple paths to find it.
The game industry is going hard on “GaaS” or “Games as a Service.” Microsoft is going hard on “OS as a service” because, in the same way, they want your data or your money as you use the product
O&O ShutUp10 is free and handles all this automatically.
The regulators get more money the longer this goes on.
Maybe some are awake but corrupt.
Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
A dark pattern (also known as a “deceptive design pattern”) is “a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying overpriced insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills”. User experience designer Harry Brignull coined the neologism on 28 July 2010 with the registration of darkpatterns. org, a “pattern library with the specific goal of naming and shaming deceptive user interfaces”. In 2021 the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Consumer Reports created a tip line to collect information about dark patterns from the public.
Suggestion/request: please, consider making your bot opt-in, or to only act when explicitly requested to do so (e.g. by adding
!wikibotto the post/comment).While this bot outputs good info, and it’s trivial to opt out to a single bot, it’s still adding a bit of unnecessary noise, and a nasty precedent. Eventually Lemmy will get more bots, and some won’t be as useful as this one; the noise will quickly pile up, unless users are expected to opt out to every single one of them.
This would probably also allow you to let the bot operate outside this comm.
Yeah well I did this so that the bot just doesn’t sit idle waiting for someone to mention it because it’s not very well known yet. I might do that as it indeed seems like it’s annoying some users. Thanks for the suggestion.
Got it - for initial discoverability I guess that it’s fine.
I wish that we had some page or similar where people could actually look for bots, and how to trigger them.
Alright, thanks for your suggestion. The main program is not only now smaller but also faster. Anyone can use it anytime by writing their comment with their wikipedia link and mentioning the bot anywhere in the comment.
Test:
Read this to learn about computers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer @wikibot@lemmy.world
That’s great! Thank you for taking feedback into account; I genuinely can see myself using your bot in the future, it’s good stuff.
Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. The term computer system may refer to a nominally complete computer that includes the hardware, operating system, software, and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation; or to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems.
I love how Outlook opens your links in Edge and gives you a little message about how it knows it’s not your default browser but it thought you’d like to open in Edge anyway.
This has been annoying the shit out of me recently. I use several different computers so I keep running into this dumb shit. I feel like I’m in an endless fight to not use Edge. Microsoft knows I don’t want to use it but they keep shoving it in my face again and again regardless. I really wish regulators would step in and put a stop to this nonsense.
They’re not going to step in to fix it. They have no justification for daring to stand up to a 3 trillion dollar company.
They might throw a 5 million fine at them or something, but nothing that’s actually going to stop this horrible anti-consumer monolith of practices
You don’t seem to be familiar with the history of browsers or the billion dollar fine Microsoft received in the 90s.
EU regulators can and will make Microsoft hurt if they want to.
Or this fine from 2013 which related to Microsoft breaching the settlement agreement from the first fine: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-fined-731m-by-eu-in-browser-choice-screw-up/
Bitch please. Those fines are barely parking tickets to a 3 trillion dollar company.
And you don’t know me so stfu
The other muppet clearly mentioned those fines as an example, that fines can harm Microsoft if so desired. Of course they’d need to be scaled up given that MS is considerably more wealthy than back then.
Aside from the fact that they were being condescending in their reply, that 900 some odd million dollar fine was only a small fraction of the profits they made from doing crimes and misdemeanors.
If you can rob a house and the only penalty is that you have to give the cops some of your loot then there’s not really a reason to not rob houses.
Anybody with a lick of sense would say that if you do a crime you don’t get to keep any of the profit.
So while 900 million looks really good on paper and it really looks like you’re sticking it to the big bad Microsoft, when they made tens of billions of dollars off of those crimes it’s a giant nothing Burger.
Now that Microsoft is a 3 trillion dollar company, any fine that isn’t over a hundred billion dollars is something that they can easily ignore.
If you’re talking about these fines: it was 1.35 billion euros in total, the “900 million” number only refers to the biggest one. And there were two complicating factors:
- It’s for the EU only. I can’t demand a thief to give me back what he stole from you.
- It’s about the Windows Media Player only. If I prove that the thief stole my hammer, but not my sickle, I can only demand my hammer back.
I do agree that it’s a bit small, considering their size back then (they were already a 300B company), but the case still triggered some action from MS, forcing it to release a WMP-less version of Windows.
And, if this happened today, with Edge, I predict that the fine would be considerably larger, since MS has today ten times the market share that it had in 07, and because browsers are seen as a bigger deal than media players. Perhaps not hundreds of billions, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 50B.
I also predict that it would be far more effective because their strategy with Edge is to push it down your throat until you don’t spit it back, so an “Edge-less version” would be actually seen as desirable by the customers.
You were presented with proof that your claims are wrong and you respond immediately with ad-hominem attacks.
You are a low quality contributor and Lemmy would be better off without you.
On-topic: I agree with your claim that EU regulators can and will make Microsoft hurt if they want to, and that both fines are examples of that.
Off-topic: frankly the other user unleashing at you was deserved. Your “You don’t seem to be familiar […]” boils down to “I assume that you’re an ignorant, so let me enlighten you little thing”. Stick to the argument dammit, your assumptions on the others are irrelevant garbage.
Also, you’d do a great favour for everyone if you didn’t use “ad-hominem” [SIC] as a fancy reword for “waaah, he insulted me!”. The argument is there, alongside the insult.
In the meantime: @Bizarroland@kbin.social, stop bring guns to a sword fight. While the above was patronising (as I am being towards both of you here - except that I’m being explicit on it), your “waaah shut up! shut up!!!” (ipsis ungulis: “stfu”) sounds like a redditor whining.
You bunch of kids, go back to the kindergarten. Both of you are being dead weight hier.
My assumption was that they were unaware rather than wilfully spreading misinformation which is the generous position to take.
People who get upset over being factually corrected are of low value to online communities.
Their response also contained no facts or evidence only further claims which I won’t waste further time addressing.
Since you love ad-hominem with a dash of unsupported claims:
It looks like you’re suggesting we assume every commenter is speaking factually. What an absolute fucking muppet you are. It’s free speech absolutist moral panic driven morons like you eroding society as a whole.
Gasslight Gateskeep Girlboss
I can always count on Microsoft to help me fix my default browser settings which I keep changing by accident. Silly me.
Same thing with MS Teams, except it didn’t give me any messages. It just started opening all my links on Edge overnight. I was very confused when I double checked my OS settings and Edge wasn’t my default browser. I had to manually set Teams to use the same as my OS default instead of Edge.
This whole thing reeks of higher execs pushing stuff no one wants or needs, while a poor dev has to implement shit like this and cry in bed at night.
As someone who refuses to use windows and who also refuses to use either of these browsers, I find this extremely amusing. Very troubling, of course, but also extremely amazing. 
These AI generated article thumbnails are getting out of hand.
Reminds me of the creatures that russian man made with his own sperm.
He did what!?
https://www.elitereaders.com/russian-guy-injects-sperm-chicken-egg-attempt-create-homunculus/
Though many say it’s fake so yeah.
That’s staying blue
Many? It’s laughably fake.
Okay, let’s think about this for a minute - do chickens and human beings have genetics that are at all compatible with each other? (I’ll give you hint: chickens have a ZW chromosome sex determination system, humans XY). I’m not an expert on chickens, but I’m pretty sure the eggs are typically fertilized before the egg fully forms.
And then if we read the article:
In other words, it’s most likely the Russian guy was just entertaining everyone with his video. Whatever he did to make his “homunculus” appear alive worked on his target audience. It captured the overactive imagination of so many netizens. In this sense, his experiment succeeded.
Funny that it’s at the end, after a random bit about Paracelsus and a tangentially related real experimental process for making genetically modified chickens.
Let’s not take 2016 SEO clickbait garbage seriously :)
Those are called children
The thumbnail is from 2021, I believe it’s manually edited.
