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RSS Channel: Comments on: Microsoft adds driver to Windows that prevents changing the default browser using the registry
Exploring the Future of Computing
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By: Morgan
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438138">sukru</a>. [q]It might be difficult to explain to those who don’t use Adobe tools, but there is basically no competition. I am not a professional photographer, but I take this hobby a bit seriously. I shoot RAW and then process them in Lightroom, and also use it for organization.[/q] Yep, you fall under the "specific workflows" I was talking about: "Photoshop is best used in certain specific industries and workflows, and for lesser needs there are tons of easier to learn, easier to use, and less expensive replacements." [q](And professionals don’t always have an employer either. Craigslist will have lots of small photography business which could be a single person or two).[/q] I also mentioned freelancers: "For those who do need Photoshop specifically for their workflow, they are already using either Windows or macOS because that’s what their employer provides, or if they are freelance they use whichever of the two commercial OSes they are already used to."

By: sukru
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438114">Morgan</a>. Morgan, It might be difficult to explain to those who don't use Adobe tools, but there is basically no competition. I am not a professional photographer, but I take this hobby a bit seriously. I shoot RAW and then process them in Lightroom, and also use it for organization. I have tried switching off of it, without success. There is no other software that even comes close. (And professionals don't always have an employer either. Craigslist will have lots of small photography business which could be a single person or two).

By: sukru
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438135">sukru</a>. (yes I know the "foreign" part, I could not find domestic for those dates)

By: sukru
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438112">Drumhellar</a>. Drumhellar, I don't it is an admin thing, but a general government issue. <blockquote> According to OpenSecrets, Microsoft spent $3,300 in 1990 on foreign lobbying. </blockquote> and <blockquote> According to OpenSecrets, Microsoft spent $4,860,000 on lobbying in 1999. Microsoft has been one of the biggest spenders on lobbying in the tech industry, consistently reporting annual expenses of about $9–10 million in recent years. </blockquote> It only went up from there. Regardless of the party colors, large tech companies have learned to fund campaigns of <b>all</b> politicians to make things move smoothly.

By: sukru
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438099">Drumhellar</a>. Drumhellar, Alfman, There is already a perfectly good solution to all these. But Microsoft will never implement it. Like "Open" file dialogues in sandboxed environments, user interaction can be utilized to give temporary permissions to the program. So, if Chrome of Firefox, or Adobe Acrobat wants to change settings, they would invoke a UI: "requestRegistryPermission(keys, user/system)" which will allow those changes for the current thread. And then Windows will make sure the user has consent to what is going on, and only then will allow the change. Of course, this would be counter to their efforts to force Edge to all users, and making it extremely difficult to change with dark patterns.

By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438099">Drumhellar</a>. Drumhellar, <blockquote>I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree, because while I absolutely agree with the above quoted statement, I do not see this minor change as a part of that. I see it from the other side, of 3rd party apps being the ones that are misbehaving by maliciously changing these settings.</blockquote> Of course nobody thinks applications should be changing settings maliciously without permission. But what I don't understand at all is why anyone is ok letting MS off the hook when they have been guilty of repeatedly the very same malicious changes. https://9to5google.com/2024/01/30/microsoft-edge-chrome-data-update-windows/ I don't know if you are just posturing or are you actually ok with microsoft's double standard? If you are an MS edge user, maybe you don't care, but obviously it's not just MS edge user opinions that matter here. We must put an end to monopolies giving themselves special treatment, otherwise their abusive practices (including the ones you are complaining about) will only continue with windows updates that override the chosen browser. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-11-continues-to-default-back-to-edge-how/bbdd2562-f669-4dc9-8e88-71b29b7be5e7

By: andyprough
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438104">kurkosdr</a>. >"And then you have the typically bad power management of Desktop Linux on Windows-centric laptops (aka anything not made by System76)." Do you have a specific problem that occurred with power management? I've used lots of different name brand laptops and I'm trying to think of an issue, other than occasionally I dug into the power settings to stop the wifi card from being put to sleep. That's a bit irritating when you are working along, getting work done, and all of a sudden the OS decides, "sleepy time for wifi". But that's also a very easy fix. I definitely could not say Windows was a better experience. MS used to put out semi-annual updates that would just crush the living hell out of my uncle's laptop's networking and sound. We would spend weeks reading through online forums together trying to find solutions. I don't know if MS is still doing that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

By: Drumhellar
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438099">Drumhellar</a>. <blockquote>It’s a huge problem that microsoft has been repeatedly cheating and overwriting user settings to benefit their monopoly. </blockquote> I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, because while I absolutely agree with the above quoted statement, I do not see this minor change as a part of that. I see it from the other side, of 3rd party apps being the ones that are misbehaving by maliciously changing these settings. I see it that way because apart from the user-hostile changes, Microsoft has been walking them back a bit at a time with each release. They have since bundled many of those related web browser settings into a single option (after previously separating each option out). I also have to fix PDF issues quite frequently because Chrome, Edge, and Adobe all like to hijack that setting. (Adobe is the worst, because Acrobat Reader will hijack it from Acrobat Pro DC, and vice-versa) It'd be nice if everybody played along, but just because Microsoft occasionally hijacks these settings (Less frequently than Chrome or Adobe, in my experience), doesn't mean they also shouldn't do anything to prevent 3rd parties from doing it.

By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438124">Seeprime</a>. Seeprime, <blockquote>Correct. It’s so easy to automatically presume Microsoft is acting nefariously, since they do so often enough. ... It's about time this BS actively was blocked.</blockquote> That's a great idea, but the problem is that microsoft themselves are guilty of the very things you accuse others of doing. Microsoft abusing users of other browsers should not be allowed to stand. For the sake of fairness, they need to lead by example and they should pass a mandate that MS applications are required to use the same APIs and restrictions they're forcing others to use. I doubt anyone here is against protecting the user from unwanted changes, but it's completely disingenuous to suggest such restrictions are about protecting user choice when microsoft themselves won't abide by those same choices. They need to be called out on their hypocrisy. https://www.theverge.com/21310611/microsoft-edge-browser-forced-update-chromium-editorial <blockquote>If I told you that my entire computer screen just got taken over by a new app that I’d never installed or asked for — it just magically appeared on my desktop, my taskbar, and preempted my next website launch — you’d probably tell me to run a virus scanner and stay away from shady websites, no? But the insanely intrusive app I’m talking about isn’t a piece of ransomware. It’s Microsoft’s new Chromium Edge browser, which the company is now force-feeding users via an automatic update to Windows.</blockquote> https://www.theverge.com/24054329/microsoft-edge-automatic-chrome-import-data-feature <blockquote>Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update. I don’t use Microsoft Edge regularly, and I have Google Chrome set as my default browser. Bleary-eyed at 9AM, it took me a moment to realize that Microsoft Edge had simply taken over where I’d left off in Chrome. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I never imported my data into Microsoft Edge, nor did I confirm whether I wanted to import my tabs. But here was Edge automatically opening after a Windows update with all the Chrome tabs I’d been working on. I didn’t even realize I was using Edge at first, and I was confused why all my tabs were suddenly logged out.</blockquote>

By: iluvcrap2000
How is this NOT Monopolizing the OS? Didn't Apple get sued for this too?

By: Seeprime
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438094">Drumhellar</a>. Correct. It's so easy to automatically presume Microsoft is acting nefariously, since they do so often enough. This driver actually blocks oddball browsers from taking over as default. When I ask our shop's customers why they use Avast secure browser, for the few that had it, they typically didn't even know that it was installed, let alone being used, as it looks like Chrome but reports to Avast who then sells their usage data. It's about time this BS actively was blocked.

By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438099">Drumhellar</a>. <blockquote>No new UI is needed, just enforcing the UI as the only means to make these changes, which is what Microsoft has done.</blockquote> It's a huge problem that microsoft has been repeatedly cheating and overwriting user settings to benefit their monopoly. And it's not a trivial for users to change under microsoft's dialog when they replaced dozens of file associations and you have to go in and revert them one by one. They need to provide 3rd parties with the same API they they use to change user settings, otherwise it's obviously not a genuinely impartial solution. The user should be able to decline any unwanted changes <b>including microsoft's!!!</b> This is critical in order to stop their antitrust abuses. Their goal is to make competing software more cumbersome to use and unfortunately they're accomplishing that.

By: Drumhellar
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438099">Drumhellar</a>. <blockquote>I’m not against a new UI that behaves fairly.</blockquote> No new UI is needed, just enforcing the UI as the only means to make these changes, which is what Microsoft has done. <blockquote. But 3rd parties have not been the limiting factor here, it works exactly the way microsoft built it. 3rd parties have been a limiting factor here, even if not the only one. This has been an issue for a while. <blockquote> If microsoft wants to address the shortcomings of their own design going forward, that’s one thing,</blockquote> And that's exactly what they did here. A shortcoming of their design is that anybody can change this setting without user permission; this has been fixed. <blockquote> but to have drivers override user selections and not providing a new API really makes it seem like microsoft’s intentions might not be so pure after all.</blockquote> One way to test Microsoft's intentions with this is if it still blocks these registry changes if a 3rd party app attempts to switch to Edge as the default browser, rather than Chrome or something else. Of course, this developer didn't test that.

By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438119">Kochise</a>. Kochise, <blockquote>PSP is indeed very good. Well, *was* very good, until Corel bought it and made it slow like a paraplegic snail. PSP 9 was fast like a tropical hurricane.</blockquote> I agree with you there, but it's been long enough that I probably need to try it again.

By: Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438118">Kochise</a>. Kochise, <blockquote>Sure, technically speaking, but that’s not what I was talking about. Kids and grandmas are using Chromebooks and not Linux machines for a reason. Guess why.</blockquote> I do know kids and grandmas using linux without issue, so I wouldn't want to hazard a guess, For those needing to run windows software, sure I'd agree linux isn't for them. But for many users only do web/social media/youtube/news, windows/chromebooks /linux desktops etc all get you there. Unless you have specific need for windows software, I honestly believe the choice of operating system is mostly one of habit because change is frustrating. Yes, even going from linux to macos or windows can be frustrating just like the other way around.

By: Kochise
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139194/microsoft-adds-driver-to-windows-that-prevents-changing-the-default-browser-using-the-registry/#comment-10438093">Alfman</a>. PSP is indeed very good. Well, *was* very good, until Corel bought it and made it slow like a paraplegic snail. PSP 9 was fast like a tropical hurricane.