I'd echo a sibling comment that I'm often confused by these stories on HN, since this kind of thing never happens to me, and I use Windows 11 on a daily basis (

I'd echo a sibling comment that I'm often confused by these stories on HN, since this kind of thing never happens to me, and I use Windows 11 on a daily basis (on multiple machines). Yes, they sometimes show a prompt after updates asking if I want to change the default browser to Edge — I always decline. And no settings change. Boosting Edge's numbers by force-switching the default browser without asking would have such obvious, predictable backlash, I'd be pretty surprised if this ever shipped intentionally. Let alone changing Chrome's default search engine without asking — that very likely is illegal. Is your Windows machine a personal one, or is it a corporate machine? I could imagine that poorly designed corporate IT update enforcement software would accidentally do this kind of thing.