And Microsoft wonder why on earth people jump through their arsenal of hoops to switch from Edge to any other browser as a default.
This would be it
The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
41–50 of 389 posts
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just three clicks to disable widgets, "Right click taskbar, select taskbar settings, click on slider to turn widgets off".
That does not disable widgets. That only hides the button that toggles it. (Edit 29 minutes after, because I can't seem to post anymore:) It still runs its webview in the background and can be toggled with the keyboard shortcut, Win+W, even if the button is hidden. In order to fully disable it you need a Group Policy or a registry hack.
Good to know, thanks for that.
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody would criticize Microsoft if they did the same with Edge and left it at that .
I sincerely doubt that.
Do you think there is some coordinated smear campaign against Microsoft that is holding them to a higher standard than its competitors, and if so, why do you believe this instead of the simpler explanation that people are fed up with a user-hostile OS/browser especially when it is the only upgrade path from a prior, non-user-hostile one (Windows 7)?
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think Microsoft are at risk of bankruptcy? Why?
No, not at all. That's my point. All these ads, data collection and selling of data, that's just unnecessary. Microsoft don't need the additional revenue, yet Edge is filled with stuff that I'd only expect from a shady online gaming company, or a company that's severely short on cash. As others have pointed out, maybe it's actually "features" that adds value for the general public, maybe it's just greed. In any case…
For any company of Microsoft's age & size, "doesn't need" is completely orthogonal to "corporate executive greed". You probably should "rightsize" your level of respect for MS.
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#45I’m a longtime Windows fan, and initially I was quite enamored by Edge as well. Base UX is excellent, lots of settings and they’re easy to find. Vertical tab bar, profiles, and it all Just Works. I flat out love its “turn this website into a desktop app” feature. But by now they've shoved their core consumer products so chock full of crap that even I am starting to look for a way out. I got my son a new laptop recent…
> Don’t they understand that this is what drives people to Macs and Chromebooks (and nerds like me to Linux)? (Internal) metrics say otherwise.
Internal metrics can be cooked to show anything. I read somewhere that "if you torture the data enough, it will confess". Whatever oxygen wasters are pushing for this crap will cook the data in such a way to push for their idea (as their salary depends on it) while "conveniently" not putting forwards data that shows otherwise.
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Don’t they understand that this is what drives people to Macs and Chromebooks (and nerds like me to Linux)? (Internal) metrics say otherwise.
How would internal metrics even capture someone using a different computer?
I think you can track pretty well with just the device ID alone, but you combine it with other identities like location information, IP address, cookies, login information and so on. Is that why Windows 11 recently made it impossible to bypass creating an MS account?
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#47Oh man, as a longtime Mac user I have zero patience for this. Unfortunately my corporate laptop is a Windows one and when that giant, gaudy big blue Bing icon showed up in my toolbar yesterday I dropped everything to try and disable it. I was disappointed but not surprised there was no setting for it. A quick search online led to some policy and registry settings but the corporate policies my company has in place wou…
Any job that forces me to use a Windows machine for a significant amount of time is a job I will not take. The only way to fight against this bullshit is to make it a downside for the companies that deploy it, and in turn, their supplier (Microsoft).
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#48> If they offered privacy-enhanced ad-blocking Chromium with opt-in MS integration I think they would eat Chrome’s lunch. It’s a strict improvement in every way and I would absolutely love to see it.
I wish Microsoft really paid attention to this. This is the core reason why people jumped to Brave (despite the crypto wallet connection & byzantine ad revenue sharing, which I assume sends some kind of telemetry too). I personally don't like it, but having a feature rich Chromium-based, modular features browser would be nice. This is such a missed opportunity.
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just three clicks to disable widgets, "Right click taskbar, select taskbar settings, click on slider to turn widgets off".
That does not disable widgets. That only hides the button that toggles it. (Edit 29 minutes after, because I can't seem to post anymore:) It still runs its webview in the background and can be toggled with the keyboard shortcut, Win+W, even if the button is hidden. In order to fully disable it you need a Group Policy or a registry hack.
As a mac user it’s super frustrating because this is the shortcut to close a window so I see this widget flyout constantly.
I need to figure out a way to remap it but not having admin on my corporate machine I have little hope.
Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge
#50It would be interesting to hear what people outside of the HN bubble (or outside of tech in general) think about this. I bet a lot of people like seeing the news right after starting the browser because that's exactly why the opened the browser in the first place.
> I bet a lot of people like seeing the news right after starting the browser because that's exactly why the opened the browser in the first place.
Does anyone, besides maybe the elderly (out of habit), use a desktop computer to read (clickbait, low-quality) news instead of their phone?
As an anecdote, I know a non-technical Windows user who unlocks their machine by clicking the "like what you see?" prompt on the lockscreen backgrounds as a way to dismiss the (stupid) lockscreen and get to the password prompt.
Doing so opens a Bing search for some bullshit (in Edge obviously) which she just leaves in the background as she moves onto her actual work-related application. I bet this looks great in metrics and "engagement", while being totally fake engagement and not actually representative of the usefulness of this "feature". I wonder how many other useless features are misused by non-technical users where all the "engagement" is actually just accidental clicks.