Windows 11: Microsoft makes it hard to switch browsers

Whether it’s Chrome, Firefox or Edge – everyone has a particular browser preference. In the new Windows 11, the standard browser setup is said to be a lot more complicated than it was in Windows 10. If you don’t do the setup when you first open a link after installing the browser, you can, according to a report
the edge
Be prepared for a little click marathon.

As with Windows 10, according to the report, an input window appears after installing a new browser on Windows 11 and opening a web link for the first time. Unless you check “Always use this app,” the default (Microsoft Edge) won’t change, she says. If you want to change the selection later, for example if you launch the new browser manually and it asks you to set it as the default, you end up in the new settings area. Unlike the previous version of Windows 11, according to The Verge, you can’t just select the browser you want here. Microsoft no longer arranges the settings according to the program, but as a screenshot shows, according to the type of file. This means that you have to select the browser you want for each page format like HTML, PDF, WEBP, XHTML, HTTP and HTTPS.

Microsoft justifies the change over The Verge with the goal of giving Windows users more control over the standard settings. However, browser providers like Firefox are concerned. Since Windows 10, users have increasingly had to take extra and unnecessary steps to change their default browser, Selena Dickleman, senior vice president of Firefox, tells The Verge. All barriers are designed to undermine the choice of non-Microsoft browsers.