[German]There is currently an uproar in the US media because Microsoft has overdoing it with its ads in Windows 11, which ask users to use Bing.com as a search engine. US media claims that the Microsoft ads behaves like malware – and I was already thinking about an EU complaint. It seems that Microsoft respects the regulations of the EU. Because users in Europe get the option to open links in the default browser – instead of Edge.
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Links open in the default browser in the EU
Redmond is notorious for bullying its users. At the end of 2021, I reported in the article Windows 11: Microsoft enforces Edge browser in several protocols, bricks EdgeDeflector that Microsoft forces the Edge browser under Windows 11 as the default in protocols. This makes redirection to third-party browsers impossible. Even the free helper application called EdgeDeflector, which was supposed to fix this, was torpedoed by Microsoft.
In February 2022, there was this article from Microsoft about how customers with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription would be able to open browser links from the Outlook app in Microsoft Edge right next to the email. And in May 2023, I had reported about the next step in the Outlook and Teams within my blog post Outlook and Teams to open links soon in Edge by default. No matter what browser the user is using on Windows, links from the Outlook and Teams apps should always open in Edge.
The users are being bullied to the point of no return. At the time, I recommended that those affected file a complaint against Microsoft with the EU Competition Commission. I myself did not have the time to do so, but I was also not affected at the time because I did not use Windows 10/11.
Microsoft then published the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 in the Developer Channel on August 25, 2023. I do not test Insider Previews of Windows 11 myself, so I did not read the announcement here. But the colleagues at Bleeping Computer noticed something: Microsoft has included a feature in this Windows 11 build that causes Windows system components to use the default browser to open links.
However, this only applies to users who use this Windows 11 Insider Build within the EU (Microsoft refers to the European Economic Area, EEA, which also includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). Microsoft refused to comment when asked by Bleeping Computer, why the feature comes only for european users.
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Of course, this immediately triggered a query as to how Windows could be made to believe that the user was traveling within the EEA countries. Someone then gave the laconic tip to try another operating system that does not come from Microsoft.
The pressure from the EU is therefore having an effect on Microsoft, which is now the subject of competition proceedings (see my German blog post EU-Kommission eröffnet Wettbewerbsverfahren gegen Microsoft wegen Teams and the post EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft for Teams bundling with Office 365). There, Microsoft had already conceded in advance to no longer bundle Microsoft Teams with Office 365 or Microsoft 365 – which is not enough for the EU Competition Commission.
Anger over Microsoft's Bing.com popups
In some US media like Windows Central and The Verge, the anger about Microsoft's latest attempts to promote its Bing search engine in Windows 11 is currently boiling up. I had already taken up the background in the blog post Windows 11: Microsoft has stopped aggressive Bing change advertising in Chrome.
Microsoft has once again played out very aggressive ads campaign for their Bing search engines to Windows 11 users in recent weeks. Windows 11 users were suddenly nagged with a popup in the lower right corner of the desktop (see above tweet), demanding to change the default search engine to bing.com. Meanwhile, Microsoft had to stop this campaign again, according to Windows Latest, because the ads even affected games on Windows 11 and the notification covered parts of the game.
I had explained some technical background in the blog post Edge 116: Mysterious files bgaupdate.exe and bgaupsell.exe after blog readers complained about strange files under Windows 10/11. Microsoft has the ability to bully Windows users with popups for using bing.com and Edge. In the US media linked above, there is talk of behavior like classic malware (in my eyes, there is no other way to describe this encroaching behavior). My impression: Microsoft marketing seems to be overdoing it.
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Windows 11: Microsoft enforces Edge browser in several protocols, bricks EdgeDeflector
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