6 ms·

Sounds like some high level product manager from Edge forced this decision on the Windows team. It makes no sense why they wouldn't respect a user's default set

by websap 5y ago

Sounds like some high level product manager from Edge forced this decision on the Windows team. It makes no sense why they wouldn't respect a user's default settings. People configure a multitude of addons and customizations in their default browser, to completely bypass that seems like a poor customer experience.

FridayoLeary 5y ago
Sounds plausible. It can't be a fun job making a crappy spin- off of Chrome. And knowing that no one cares less about what you do and the whole purpose of your project is so that MS can say "we do that too". Edge exists to promote MS, not to serve customers, so it's not surprising if the Edge team don't care about UX or even the reputation of Windows itself.
- websap 5y ago
  I wouldn't install Chrome on any of my devices. Google's approach to building a browser has been probably the most devious plan of the last decade. They started with these good intentions, but have completely destroyed my faith in browsers.
- tiernano 5y ago
  It's a bit of a pain, but having used new chromium based edge for a while, it does work well, and it's not got Google crap in it... Yes, Microsoft replaced Google with theirs, but it's not a bad browser...
  - dontblink 5y ago
    Would you recommend it (if so why)? Not particularly jazzed about MS given their anti-user behavior with Windows. Is Chromium the way to go?
    - briffle 5y ago
      Why not firefox? have you used it in the last few years? its dramatically faster than anything else, and actually respects privacy.
      - WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
        Firefox does 95% of my browsing because it supports uncrippled ad-blocking and other web-decrapifying measures.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
WorldMaker 5y ago
Giving reasonable doubt to Microsoft here, many of these features using the microsoft-edge:// pseudo protocol also have Windows 10 back ports and it is reasonable to assume that it was a workaround intended to address the elephant in the room that some Windows 10 users (coughEnterprisecough) set IE11 as their default browser in a poorly thought out GPO somewhere they don't remember how to fix. (Probably because it was some big bully coughOraclecough that told them they needed to do that in the first place.) The pseudo protocol probably should have been better designed with a less specific name, and probably should have had a better fallback to default browsers when they aren't IE11, but one can also imagine the name was chosen because it was the easiest solution using existing pseudo-protocol support in Windows 10 and 11 than building a more complicated "trampoline", maybe.
- pseudalopex 5y ago
  Why shouldn't links open in IE 11 if it's the default browser?
  - WorldMaker 5y ago
    Because Microsoft stopped supporting IE 11 before Windows 10 was even released and only included it at all due to a desperate sense of backwards compatibility? Hindsight being what it is, we can all wish Microsoft had taken a different approach to IE 11 support in Windows 10. I don't think this microsoft-edge:// thing was the best answer either. It just sort of makes sense in terms of the ugly situation Microsoft created for themselves, maybe.
    - SahAssar 5y ago
      They did not stop supporting it, they stopped developing it and deprecated it. They will stop supporting it in the future, but as it is a core component of windows 10 it will be supported as long as that OS is. The support schedule for windows 11 might be different since it is no longer included as a core component. The latest release of IE11 was less than 2 months ago (September 30, 2021).
    - 5y ago

by websap 5y ago

FridayoLeary 5y ago

Sounds plausible. It can't be a fun job making a crappy spin- off of Chrome. And knowing that no one cares less about what you do and the whole purpose of your project is so that MS can say "we do that too". Edge exists to promote MS, not to serve customers, so it's not surprising if the Edge team don't care about UX or even the reputation of Windows itself.

websap 5y ago
I wouldn't install Chrome on any of my devices. Google's approach to building a browser has been probably the most devious plan of the last decade. They started with these good intentions, but have completely destroyed my faith in browsers.
tiernano 5y ago
It's a bit of a pain, but having used new chromium based edge for a while, it does work well, and it's not got Google crap in it... Yes, Microsoft replaced Google with theirs, but it's not a bad browser...
- dontblink 5y ago
  Would you recommend it (if so why)? Not particularly jazzed about MS given their anti-user behavior with Windows. Is Chromium the way to go?
  - briffle 5y ago
    Why not firefox? have you used it in the last few years? its dramatically faster than anything else, and actually respects privacy.
    - WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
      Firefox does 95% of my browsing because it supports uncrippled ad-blocking and other web-decrapifying measures.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

WorldMaker 5y ago

Giving reasonable doubt to Microsoft here, many of these features using the microsoft-edge:// pseudo protocol also have Windows 10 back ports and it is reasonable to assume that it was a workaround intended to address the elephant in the room that some Windows 10 users (coughEnterprisecough) set IE11 as their default browser in a poorly thought out GPO somewhere they don't remember how to fix. (Probably because it was some big bully coughOraclecough that told them they needed to do that in the first place.) The pseudo protocol probably should have been better designed with a less specific name, and probably should have had a better fallback to default browsers when they aren't IE11, but one can also imagine the name was chosen because it was the easiest solution using existing pseudo-protocol support in Windows 10 and 11 than building a more complicated "trampoline", maybe.

pseudalopex 5y ago
Why shouldn't links open in IE 11 if it's the default browser?
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  Because Microsoft stopped supporting IE 11 before Windows 10 was even released and only included it at all due to a desperate sense of backwards compatibility? Hindsight being what it is, we can all wish Microsoft had taken a different approach to IE 11 support in Windows 10. I don't think this microsoft-edge:// thing was the best answer either. It just sort of makes sense in terms of the ugly situation Microsoft created for themselves, maybe.
  - SahAssar 5y ago
    They did not stop supporting it, they stopped developing it and deprecated it. They will stop supporting it in the future, but as it is a core component of windows 10 it will be supported as long as that OS is. The support schedule for windows 11 might be different since it is no longer included as a core component. The latest release of IE11 was less than 2 months ago (September 30, 2021).
  - 5y ago