10 ms·
Windows 10 informs Chrome and Firefox users that Edge is ‘safer’
- cpncrunch 10y agoI'm curious: is Edge actually more secure than Chrome? Certainly with Chrome I've noticed a large number of malicious sites don't trigger any warnings from Chrome at all, so Chrome certainly has a lot more work to do.
- mtgx 10y agoAt least going by the recent Pwn2Own competitions, the answer seems to be no. We'll see how they fare at the next ones. The AppGuard virtualization thing or whatever they are calling it better come as an API for other apps soon as well, and I hope Microsoft won't just keep it for its own products. I could see serious anti-competitive issues with that (important OS feature being kept from competitors so Microsoft can aid its own products). I also don't understand why they are making that feature part of "Windows Defender". It doesn't make any sense to do that, except for "brand unification". I think it should be kept separate.
- Klathmon 10y agoAppGuard is interesting, but it's kind of "cheating". That's not to say it's a bad thing, better security is a win, but it might come with some significant downsides to battery and performance, and most likely will not be a "general purpose" security mechanism for the masses (at least right now they are only showing it off as something a corporate network admin can enable for some sites). Then again, this is all speculation. They could prove me horribly wrong and wipe the damn floor with the competition!
- dogma1138 10y agoAppGuard was disabled in the latest Pwn2Own AFAIK, so were a few other Windows security measures.
- egwor 10y agoThis is semi-humorous and semi-serious. If so few users actually use edge then hackers won't bother trying to target it. I suspect that most people use Chrome over Edge, and the use of Edge is very small. Could this be true? Example story: http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-usage-continues-to-rise-but-users-say-no-to-the-edge-browser/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-usage-continues-to-r...
- enzanki_ars 10y agoI wonder if the EU will investigate this as they did with IE and the European Union Microsoft competition case[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu
- problems 10y ago"It blocks 21% more socially engineered malware". What does that even mean? That it blocks malware links from social engineering attacks? Seems like really confusing wording.
- danudey 10y agoIt sounds like a deliberately specific statistic for the purposes of inflating the statistic.
- endymi0n 10y agoLike there's almost no malware or fishy apps for Windows Phone since nobody bothers targeting an ecosystem with 2% market share?
- acqq 10y ago"What does that even mean?" For example, that they actually compared the number of the malware sites they can block and counted more of them?
- curried_haskell 10y agoProbably a number made-up by their marketing department. Or very carefully cherry-picked.
- aluhut 10y agoSounds good. It's not 30 because that would imply "a third" and it's not 10 which would just look low. Instead it's the middle +1. If I'd write a story about somebody who has to make up one, this would be it ;)
- orbitingpluto 10y agoHopefully Microsoft included this Edge dependent intrusive and unwanted advertising into this statistic. No?
- petre 10y ago
- thro32 10y agoYet another reasons to blocks automated updates on Windows. Lets see how Edge becomes 'safer' in that situation.
- thro32 10y agoDownvotes are nice, but is there any other solution? I want just security updates without new extra functionality. MS is unpredictable and I do not trust them. One day it might decide to put ads on wallpaper or something.
- tdkl 10y agoSadly the only choice for that is the LTSB edition, not eligible for end-user purchase. Personally I justified its install with my machine being eligible for free 10 update and ending with less features (which I don't need). It receives a cumulative security update once per month and no junk.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoIt's a closed source OS, you really have two options: 1. Apply security updates, so you are not vulnerable to easily solvable security risks. 2. Don't use Windows 10. Disabling automatic updates isn't really a viable solution, and I will convey downvotes to people who advocate it.
- tdkl 10y ago> Disabling automatic updates isn't really a viable solution, and I will convey downvotes to people who advocate it. As they switch to a cumulative update model, will you wildly down-vote people who think that breaking their system with 1 update out of 10 is somehow reasonable ? Or that excluding that update but installing others would make more sense, then: a) leaving everything out for that month, b) having an unusable system. Morons like you who accept and even enforce this kind of "my way of the highway" attitude to the others are the reason MS can get away with it.
- 10y ago
- sickbeard 10y agoChrome has this thing called ublock though, that's enough not to take edge seriously
- curried_haskell 10y agoPlease do not browse the web without uBlock Origin. It's like a condom for your browser.
- buckbova 10y ago> It's like a condom for your browser. When you're penetrating the inter-tubes you should be protected.
- UweSchmidt 10y agoOr uMatrix for anyone willing to have quite a bit more control and insight in what's going on at the expense of some convenience.
- cptskippy 10y agoBut... https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#microsoft-edge https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#microsoft-edge
- curried_haskell 10y ago"Early development version"
- ConAntonakos 10y agoHow would you compare it to Privacy Badger?
- ocdtrekkie 10y agouBlock is designed to block ads. People like me won't use uBlock, because blocking ads is for jerks. (Go ahead, downvote it. It won't change my mind. Ad blocking destroys the open web, by putting content producers out of business. If you think it's just about obtrusive ads, check out Troy Hunt's recent experience: https://www.troyhunt.com/ad-blockers-are-part-of-the-problem/ https://www.troyhunt.com/ad-blockers-are-part-of-the-problem...) Privacy Badger's goal is to block tracking cookies and similar tools. Ads can, by obeying "do not track" instructions and similar, avoid being blocked by Privacy Badger, and so while some ads do end up getting caught in Privacy Badger, many do not. Privacy Badger is about protecting your privacy, not preventing advertising. Note that I've contacted the EFF regarding Privacy Badger on Edge, and they said they were working on it.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoHow is this any different than Google whining at me that I should really make them my primary search engine in the browser because they are better than any alternative. There are literally billions of dollars at stake here, he who controls the gateway to the Internet, controls the universe (with apologies to F. Herbert).
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoMostly that people have, for years, default-assumed Google was a public good, and Microsoft was an inherent evil. It's really not different at all, each company is utilizing their most prevalent platform to push their other product.
- tdkl 10y agoProbably because some people actually paid for the OS and still have to see this dumb shit.
- spacemanmatt 10y agoWe might not all pay Microsoft, but we all pay the costs
- tweakz 10y agoFTA: "We’re already used to Google’s search engine pushing Chrome, Yahoo linking to Firefox, and Bing recommending Edge. This year, Microsoft has upped the ante in the browser war with Windows 10." One could make the argument that making the push from the OS is a different level than from the website.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoI think it's a poor argument. The difference between OS, application, and web-level content is blurring more and more each year. We have web apps built into OSes, OSes built on top of web browsers, etc.
- guelo 10y agoGoogle Search is more of a monopoly than Microsoft Windows.
- Jerry2 10y agoHypocrisy at its finest. Few months ago I installed Windows 10 and decided to try Edge. Here's how Google responded to that: 1) Every time I went to google.com, I was presented with a notice that I should install Chrome and that I should set Google.com as my search engine 2) Google sent an email to my Gmail account telling me that I should install Chrome and use it instead. 3) Every time I went on Youtube.com, I was again pestered with notices that I should install Chrome. And if you're a Firefox user, you've probably noticed "set your search engine to Google" every time you search on their site. But being an Edge user is 10x worse. Google is THE WORST offender when it comes to pushing their own services. EDIT: Here's the email that Google sent me... just found it: https://i.imgur.com/aTChPib.png https://i.imgur.com/aTChPib.png
- wnevets 10y agoWait, how is this hypocrisy? Google isn't the author of this article.
- firloop 10y agoYou could make the point that this is standard industry behavior, and Microsoft deciding to market their browser this way isn't anything new or noteworthy.
- PAN4SPK2WYWQF7Q 10y agoWell, perhaps people would not consider this as annoying if Microsoft advertised Edge for people who visit e.g. microsoft.com with another browser. Having a monopolistic position on the desktop market and using that is a different ball game.
- firloop 10y agoI don't know, doing stuff like sending someone an email to switch browsers seems just as intrusive.
- NamTaf 10y ago
- egeozcan 10y agoI have been using Windows since 3.1. I've never been this annoyed. Windows 10 caused data loss (don't even get me started), privacy issues, constant nagging about their products and too many hours spent trying to change defaults (only to see them being reset seemingly at random). It's an amazing, stable and usable (except, you know...) operating system which for no logical reason, tries to alienate its users. If this is greed on Microsoft's part, then I'm really sad to see such great engineering used to do such evil. If this is a popular operating system adapting to its average user, I'm extremely sad about this deep incompetence of the average user. Probably both.
- blackflame7000 10y agoAgreed. I would much rather pay for windows and have that be the product than it be free and I be the product.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoWindows is still a paid product, it's not free. Windows 10 is merely a free software update for existing users of Windows.
- blackflame7000 10y agoWhile windows 10 now cost money, there is no question that the pricing model of this OS is vastly different from previous iterations. The presence of telemetry without a clear way to turn it off on most versions is a privacy invasion sold under the guise of performance enhancement and used for the purpose of profit.
- joering2 10y ago> tries to alienate its users. That's the unwanted or ignored outcome for their newest strategy. MS shift is from developing and charging you $200 for greatly working operating system (and making this way $1B a year) to giving you the system practically free (hello Apple) and having you operate in one giant magnifying glass, where every move of your mouse and ever letter you type is send to MS to later digest and somewhat make decisions on what you want from life in terms of ability to advertise stuff back at you, whether from Bing that you use or in some way selling signals you send them to third parties so they serve you more "relevant" content making $1B plus a few more $Bs! Conspiracy theory?? With fully working W10, from other than internet source load to your desktop photos of Ferraris, or simply name few photos "Ferrari". You will quickly see, within days how the ads being targeted to you on this computer are somewhat related to racing cars, luxury cars, etc. I made up my mind already. Windows 7 with uninstalled telemetry crap is my last standing Windows. I just got new laptop and its got enough Windows 7 drivers to install clean copy. But moving forward I will have to be forced to go into Linux... at least glad my work doesn't require any sophisticated tools that work only on specific platform.
- based2 10y agohttps://www.cvedetails.com/product/32367/Microsoft-Edge.html?vendor_id=26 https://www.cvedetails.com/product/32367/Microsoft-Edge.html...
- dogma1138 10y agohttp://www.cvedetails.com/product/15031/Google-Chrome.html?vendor_id=1224 http://www.cvedetails.com/product/15031/Google-Chrome.html?v... And before you jump about the RCE, MSFT has a very broad definition for what counts as code execution, most importantly they count any browser systemic XSS as RCE while Google classifies it as an XSS, same goes with any type of memory corruption MSFT classifies it as RCE while Google classifies it as DOS unless there is a fully proven POC. Most of these vulnerabilities were also reported by MSFT and unlike Google MSFT submits CVE's for it's internally disclosed vulnerabilities while Google doesn't.
- bitmapbrother 10y agoCan you please cite a source that states that Google does not submit CVE's for their own internally found vulnerabilities? If Android is any indication Google certainly submits CVE's for their internally found vulnerabilities.
- dep_b 10y agoI think the warning that Chrome is battery drain is pretty fair, because it's absolutely terrible. Edge is pretty secure but I don't feel using Chrome or Firefox is unsafe. I'm more afraid about my privacy using Chrome. But you shouldn't have Windows 10 telling users about how important their privacy is to Microsoft, or should it? ;)
- aethertron 10y agoOperating systems shouldn't have ads inside them. They should serve one master, the user. This is why this is quite different from Google advertising their products on their websites.
- amelius 10y agoHuh? You could also make the case that a website should serve one master, the visitor. I don't see the difference.
- rincebrain 10y agoThe perception is probably one of ownership - e.g. you think you own the "machine" you're using (and, by extension, its OS) but not the web site you're consuming. From that viewpoint, you don't expect websites to be acting in "your" best interest, necessarily, since they're not "yours" - but you do expect "your" machine to doso, or at least not actively act against it.
- catnaroek 10y agoGiven how the Web (especially Google's services!) is used for pretty much everything nowadays, I don't see any meaningful difference between an operating system that displays ads and a website that displays ads. Care to elucidate?
- aethertron 10y agoThe way things are isn't the way they have to be, or should be. To get an understanding of where I'm coming from, try this http://www.loper-os.org/?p=284 http://www.loper-os.org/?p=284
- tracker1 10y agoI wonder if chrome, if set to startup with windows, could show a similar looking "tip" when you launch IE or Edge.
- aorth 10y agoI take issue primarily with the "safer" claim. Chrome employs the most security mitigations of any browser on the market. An article from mid 2016 about grading software security like car security quantifies this nicely. Edge wasn't in the comparison, but I look forward to future research on that: https://theintercept.com/2016/07/29/a-famed-hacker-is-grading-thousands-of-programs-and-may-revolutionize-software-in-the-process/ https://theintercept.com/2016/07/29/a-famed-hacker-is-gradin...
- aq3cn 10y agoThese claims by MS are not false. Recently MS has equipped Edge with hardware-based container. This is a plus point in comparison to any other browser out there. Source: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/09/26/new-windows-10-and-office-365-features-for-the-secure-productive-enterprise https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/09/26/new-w... http://www.pcworld.com/article/3124225/security/heres-how-microsoft-is-using-containerization-to-protect-edge-users.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/3124225/security/heres-how-mi... https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-aims-to-gets-tough-on-security-with-its-edge-browser/ https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-aims-to-gets-tough-on-se... http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/microsoft-touts-container-protection-for-edge-browser/386876 http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/microsoft-touts-contain...