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Microsoft Broke a Chrome Feature To Promote Its Edge Browser (gizmodo.com) 124

Posted by BeauHD from the browser-wars dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Microsoft issued a Windows update that broke a Chrome feature, making it harder to change your default browser and annoying Chrome users with popups, Gizmodo has learned. An April Windows update borked a new button in Chrome -- the most popular browser in the world -- that let you change your default browser with a single click, but the worst was reserved for users on the enterprise version of Windows. For weeks, every time an enterprise user opened Chrome, the Windows default settings page would pop up. There was no way to make it stop unless you uninstalled the operating system update. It forced Google to disable the setting, which had made Chrome more convenient.

This petty chapter of the browser wars started in July 2022 when Google quietly rolled out a new button in Chrome for Windows. It would show up near the top of the screen and let you change your default browser in one click without pulling up your system settings. For eight months, it worked great. Then, in April, Microsoft issued Windows update KB5025221, and things got interesting. "Every time I open Chrome the default app settings of Windows will open. I've tried many ways to resolve this without luck," one IT administrator said on a Microsoft forum. A Reddit user noticed that the settings page also popped up any and every time you clicked on a link, but only if Chrome was your default browser. "It doesn't happen if we change the default browser to Edge," the user said. Others made similar complaints on Google support forums, some saying that entire organizations were having the issue. Users quickly realized the culprit was the operating system update.

For people on the regular consumer version of Windows, things weren't quite as bad; the one-click "Make Default" button just stopped working. Gizmodo was able to replicate the problem. In fact, we were able to circumvent the issue just by changing the name of the Chrome app on a Windows desktop. It seems that Microsoft threw up the roadblock specifically for Chrome, the main competitor to its Edge browser. [...] In response, Google had to disable its one-click default button; the issue stopped after it did. In other words, Microsoft seems to have gone out of its way to break a Chrome feature that made life easier for users. Google confirmed the details of this story, but declined to comment further.
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Microsoft Broke a Chrome Feature To Promote Its Edge Browser More

Microsoft Broke a Chrome Feature To Promote Its Edge Browser

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  • Spammers get spammed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:06PM (#63492898) Journal

    making it harder to change your default browser and annoying Chrome users with popups, Gizmodo has learned. An April Windows update borked a new button in Chrome -- the most popular browser in the world

    The only reason Chrome is the most popular browser is because Google gave out annoying messages on their websites anytime you didn't use it.

    • Re:Spammers get spammed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:52PM (#63492952)

      This is nonsense. Chrome became popular because it bundled Adobe flash and a PDF reader, sandbox tech, and had great automatic updates; it was a no brainer to put non-technical friends & family on to minimize malware infections.

      It also did other good things like had significantly improved performance for the day, and it reduced the amount of your display wasted with browser chrome.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by phantomfive ( 622387 )

        Chrome became popular because it bundled Adobe flash and a PDF reader, sandbox tech, and had great automatic updates

        So did Firefox. But apparently you didn't know all that, because no one advertised it to you.

        • Nope. Firefox still has a crappier UI and more intuitive to non-tech users. Its simply better for everyday users. Nothing wrong with that.

          • Re:Spammers get spammed (Score:4, Interesting)

            by narcc ( 412956 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @10:22PM (#63493192) Journal

            I agree that Firefox has the more intuitive UI, though I don't know why you'd call that "crappier".

            Common things like finding saved passwords, downloads, clearing your history, and managing add-ons are all significantly simpler in Firefox.

            Chrome's UI sucks when you get right down to it. Just about everything is more difficult than necessary. I have no idea why anyone would recommend it to non-technical users.

          • Love and use Firefox daily, once and a while I look at the other options and their always disappoint.

        • Re:Spammers get spammed (Score:4, Informative)

          by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @08:57PM (#63493056)

          Firefox never included flash, they took 4-years to write & add pdf.js (which at the time was much slower than the Chrome solution). Chrome's sandbox advantages are well known in security circles, apparently you don't even follow them so I'd suggest searching the web.

          Personally Firefox is been my primary browser as I trust myself to look after the security of my systems, however for non-technical people Chrome has been a no-brainer for security; though perhaps you can pick your poison now given the number of other browsers based on it each with their own questionable background (Microsoft, China, Brendan Eich....).

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

            And I always opt out of the browser-integrated PDF readers because they are still not pleasant to use.

          • Chrome's sandbox advantages are well known in security circles,

            The advantages are extremely overrated. Breaking out of the Javascript vm is going to cause problems whether it's in a separate process or not.

        • ... but the organisation behind Firefox also came off as deliberately anti-business with less of a focus on enterprise deployment and control, etc. The number of people having to use Chrome in an office is always going to be greater than those who really care about this stuff from their mother's basement.
        • Still use Firefox, way less intrusive and way better privacy tools.

      • This is nonsense.

        Bullshit it is. They dedicated advertising space on the Google front page to chrome for a long while. No one else gets space there and it's one of the most visited pages on the planet. They had a MASSIVE advertising push as well. What's sad though is that because nerds like to flatter themselves as immune to advertising they keep repeating old, and now inaccurate "technical reasons" why Chrome is better, long after those have faded.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

          Those WERE valid reasons, and once something becomes popular people like to bandwagon until there's some reason why they should switch again. For most users there's no perceptible reason to switch, and also Mozilla has on many occasions shit up Firefox in ways that make it less usable (mostly dicking with the interface in ways that are actively user hostile) which hasn't helped.

          I am still using Firefox, but Mozilla is trying really hard to chase me off.

    • The only reason Chrome is the most popular browser is because Google gave out annoying messages on their websites anytime you didn't use it.

      Nice try, Nadella.

    • It also was bundled as an opt-out special feature in some applications. Meaning that if you didn't pay attention when updating some anti-malware you'd get Chrome installed.

    • Re:Spammers get spammed (Score:4, Interesting)

      by The MAZZTer ( 911996 ) <megazzt.gmail@com> on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @10:33PM (#63493224) Homepage
      Actually it's because Chrome is the default Android browser and most people don't care to change it, if they even know they can.

      • Chrome is the new Internet Explorer.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          Chrome is the new Internet Explorer.

          Actually, to be more precise, the new Internet Explorer (Edge) is (based on) Chrome.

          • Re:Spammers get spammed (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Malc ( 1751 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @04:42AM (#63493522)

            Chrome is the new Internet Explorer.

            Actually, to be more precise, the new Internet Explorer (Edge) is (based on) Chrome.

            Come on: you know very well that they weren't making a technical statement. The comparison to IE is about Microsoft's behaviour and how they used IE back in the day to the detriment of open standards and other companies. I personally don't want an internet that's defined by Google and requires a Google browser or derivative to use it.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dgatwood ( 11270 )

              Chrome is the new Internet Explorer.

              Actually, to be more precise, the new Internet Explorer (Edge) is (based on) Chrome.

              Come on: you know very well that they weren't making a technical statement.

              Yeah, but I couldn't resist making the obvious joke.

        • Chrome is what IE wanted to be -- in control over web standards and able to push agenda.

          Safari is what IE became -- obsolete because they're trying to control web standards to make native apps more desirable.

    • That's a nice fantasy, but back in reality Chrome was overwhelmingly the most popular browser even before Google started its spam campaign. People overwhelmingly switched to Chrome because it was the single best browser by a long shot back a decade ago.

      • Chrome was overwhelmingly the most popular browser even before Google started its spam campaign.

        Chrome was out for years before it became popular. It didn't gain popularity until Google started spamming. Otherwise why would they have been spamming?

    • BS - IE and now Edge are Microsoft bloatware and are way more annoying, Good Day Sir!

      • Edge is an fine browser. I just haven't wanted to spend the time to learn to customize it myself. Without those customizations, it's just an advertising platform and I'm the target.

        I've spent enough time turning Firefox into serving me and not serving ads, that it is a massive hill to switch. But I don't have any problem with edge, or chrome per se.

      • Edge is basically just an improved version of Chrome with some of chromes fundamental flawes fixed.

  • Stop using Windows (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jdawgnoonan ( 718294 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:07PM (#63492900)
    If you are tired of being abused by Microsoft then stop using Windows. Very few users do anything that actually requires Windows.

    • I have to use it at work, but I stopped using Windows on my own machines two years ago. Microsoft will never get another nickel of my money.

      • Well, in a way, that's a problem for your company to suffer. They're paying extra work force tax.

    • Gaming is still a big one. Valve is making great strides though with Proton and Steam OS.

    • stop using Windows.

      Well given that auto-upgrades are a thing, Google (or someone else) could just turn it up a notch and "upgrade" Windows to ChomeOS. It's not like the idiot home users will notice much of a difference. (Gamers / Corporate Users not withstanding.)

    • Very few users were interested in change. This won't be annoying enough to get anyone to switch and your proclamation doesn't change that either. Look at the +5 comment above yours, people are complaining about the password being harder to find in Chrome compared to Firefox. That's the kind of thought process your are being when you tell people to change their entire OS.

  • Firefox Users Giggle (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:09PM (#63492902)

    Some of us know what browser to use.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by higuita ( 129722 )

      +1 to that!!

      i'm also like the new mullvad browser, it is a finetuned firefox with many (tracker friendly) features disabled, not for your personal browser, but great for random browser and random sites (or at least, sites you don't really need to be logged in)

      • Well, to be a little more specific... I actually use Portable Firefox from a site called PortableApps.com inside a destructible VM configured with a nice out of country free proxy. Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they not aren't after you.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I find I need at least 3 browsers these days.

        I use Edge for stuff that doesn't work in other browsers. Specific sites only, default settings, everything cleared on close.

        I use Chrome most of the time, with various privacy enhancements. Some sites break.

        I use Firefox sometimes too. Been trying to switch over for years, but Firefox for Android is still pretty rough. It just doesn't render a lot of sites very well, and font size settings have been broken for many years. I try to use it when I can because it ha

  • Sure, its playing dirty and very petty - but Google was intentionally circumventing the OS dialog of setting things in the exact same way malware would. Sure it wasn't truly evil since it did require the user to click - but its breaking `the rules` The Chrome button to change the default without the OS dialog/process is only slightly less wrong than Microsofts annoying banner.

    I'm really more disappointed that Windows wasn't detecting it in a generic way so that it could cover actual malicious actors rathe

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MeNeXT ( 200840 )

      I would say what Microsoft is doing with Edge is more in tune with malware than what Google is doing.

      It's stupid how browsers, including Firefox, go out of the way to break user settings. PDF and printing are frustrating when dealing with browsers. The most annoying part of computers today are browsers. They seem to break workflow with every third or forth update. I don't want every program on my system to have it's own print dialogue. There should be a simple way to just opt out. Better yet if a browser wa

  • Same old Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Howard Beale ( 92386 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:18PM (#63492916)
    DOS ain't done until Lotus can't run!

    • Re:Same old Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

      by higuita ( 129722 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @08:39PM (#63493022) Homepage

      and windows crashes in DR-DOS
      and Word Perfect stops working
      and office crashes in OS/2
      and doc and docx files using out of spec values, just to mess any other software
      and have MS tools use good intenal API, while give to the world broken public API, so other software can't even run correctly
      and ... now MS is "open source friendly", just to sell their cloud and steal GPL/BSD/Apache code in their Machine learning tools (it is not yet AI, no matter how many marketing)
      and refusing to port almost all their tools to linux and fail to adopt vulkan and instead create yet another similar standard, that only then can use

      every time i listen that MS loves linux i feel fear, they never gave up of the EEE [wikipedia.org] , but yet many people always fall in their trap, they think they can work with MS, when MS will just betray them sooner or later

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        The lesson is not to trust huge corporations with monopoly or near-monopoly power.

        That means don't trust either Microsoft or Google. Stick with Firefox on the web. It's the only sane choice.

        • Or pick something firefox did that you don't like, fixate on it, throw a nerdrage hissy fit and go into the arms of a big corp making a product that does more things you don't like just to prove how angry you are.

          That also seems a common choice here.

  • Biased much? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:20PM (#63492920) Homepage
    Is it possible this Windows setting was locked down from apps setting it to ensure the user made the choice explicitly and not some adware they install? That Chrome found a workaround and Microsoft patched the security hole?
    • Well, they did lock that setting down for exactly that reason, I think as far back as Win7, but maybe just early 10.

      MS was right to block that, and Google was wrong to try and work around it.

    • Is it possible this Windows setting was locked down from apps setting it to ensure the user made the choice explicitly and not some adware they install? That Chrome found a workaround and Microsoft patched the security hole?

      Not only possible, but actual. Programmatic access to set application defaults and file type associations has been deliberately not a thing for years now. Microsoft was very open about that, even if it's a little annoying for admins. Even Adobe Reader takes you to the settings page to do the work yourself when you want it as your default PDF viewer.

      This isn't about "Microsoft broke Chrome". It's about "Chrome did something it shouldn't have and that hack has been disabled.

    • That was my take on it as well. Seems like explicit OS permission has been needed ever since malware authors found they could automate hijacking your default browser.

      There's an anonymous cow-wad up there who claims simply renaming the Chrome executable will bypass MS's change. If that's true I'll gladly blame MS for maliciously blocking Chrome. It's not like they haven't pulled shenanigans before. Short of a more credible source though, this sounds more like MS is patching a security hole.

  • WordPerfect for Windows (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sphealey ( 2855 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:29PM (#63492924)

    It think it was something like 9 years before Microsoft admitted that yes, they had introduced changes to Windows 3.1 specifically designed to crash WordPerfect for Windows until MS Word had gained sufficient market share to ensure that it would be the dominant Windows WYSIWYG word processor and ultimately supplant WordPerfect original. The rotten skunk doesn't crawl far from the hole I guess.

  • And yet Microsoft wonders why regulatory scrutiny (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fallen Kell ( 165468 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:35PM (#63492930)
    This is why regulators, especially in the EU, actually still scrutinize Microsoft. It is this very behavior that got them in trouble in the late 90's and early 2000's, and they think that people don't remember.

  • Embrace, Extend, Corrupt... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by thesandbender ( 911391 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:50PM (#63492948)
    I've been exclusively Mac for the past 8 or so years and installed Windows because my son needed it for project he was working on. I went through three distinct phases:

    1. Hey, this isn't so bad.
    2. Wait... what... ?!?!
    3. Motherf*cker, this is my PC... not yours.

    • Re:Embrace, Extend, Corrupt... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ozmartian ( 5754788 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @08:43PM (#63493030) Homepage
      To be fair, macOS isn't much better re "owning" your machine these days.
      • I get your point but Apple has never once:

        1. Shown me an ad.
        2. Done something clearly in their favor, not my mine.

        *2 Apple has kneecapped a lot of functionality lately but 99% of the time is plausibly for the "user" and not for Apple and they generally document the backdoor (50% of the time). Microsoft clearly doesn't give a sh*t and would sell out your grandmother if it got them an extra $0.02.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by narcc ( 412956 )

          Never once ... except for all of these times...

        • Re:Embrace, Extend, Corrupt... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @01:21AM (#63493376) Homepage Journal

          2. Done something clearly in their favor, not my mine.

          I would argue that requiring all apps to take payments exclusively through Apple at an extortionate markup is clearly in their favor, not in users' favor. And no, some irrational fear of giving out your credit card number doesn't make that policy a good idea for consumers. Users have a choice to either give out that number or not, and if they don't trust an app vendor, they won't, so realistically only the biggest companies would be able to get away with taking cards directly anyway. Thus all this does is inconvenience users and raise the price of online virtual goods and services. Also, virtual cards have been around since at least the turn of the century, which makes that largely a non-issue anyway.

          I would also argue that banning apps that "duplicate built-in functionality" is clearly in their favor, not in users' favor.

          I would also argue that banning third-party JavaScript engines is clearly in their favor, not in users' favor.

          There's actually quite a long list here....

          • Yup. Virtual +1 because I don't have mod points. Microsoft are evil and have been getting worse in regards to Windows but Apple aren't saints either. They are notorious for designing their hardware and software so that they only play nice with their products and no one else's (unless absolutely necessary).
            The only mainstream OS that let's you do as you please with your hardware is Linux and I say this as a long time Windows user.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Malc ( 1751 )

          You don't use the App Store?

  • It is a wolf in sheep's clothing. They will always screw you to better their bottom line ... ALWAYS
  • Microsoft should have used Firefox as the engine Edge. They would have caught a lot less flack from regulators.

  • I seem to recall a phrase like... (Score:3)

    by c-A-d ( 77980 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:50PM (#63493294)

    "DOS ain't done 'till Lotus won't run", or something like that.

  • You deserve whatever you get using phone-home corporate malware like Google Chrome or Google anything; or anything at all from monopolistic bad player Microsoft, rent seeking us to death with 'software as service' and ADVERTISEMENTS on the operating system FFS! Download the latest Linux Mint then use Brave, Firefox or Opera browsers. Like me, you can then laugh while eating popcorn as Godzilla fights Mothra. Oh no, there goes Tokyo...

  • Microsoft is looking for trouble (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pravetz-82 ( 1259458 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @01:34AM (#63493384)
    The browser choice thing exists for a reason and Microsoft seems to have forgotten why. The EU commission might remind them with another multi billion$ slap in the face.
  • It's one thing putting in a cheeky button in to nab market share, but to screw over paying users to get back at google shows a whole new level of arrogance. Not to mention the fact that edge is based on the Chrome source code so they're already getting a free ride. It's interesting how persistent corporate traits can be

  • Oh no, making a 3rd party browser work worse, while promoting their own browser is so uncharacteristic of convicted monopolist Microsoft!

  • It's like the good ole days all over again!

  • If Chrome could be set as the default browser with one click in the browser, than any browser could hijack the defaults. That's something MS had already been trying to prevent (for what, ten years now?), so as far as I'm concerned this is just closing a loophole.

    And a good thing.

    • It wasn't done in a good way.

      If Microsoft required a UAC approval plus a CAPTCHA plus several "are you sure" popups to change default browser, that would be a good way. It'd still take a determined human some time and intentionality to accomplish it, thereby defeating hijacks, but it would be one operation, initiated by the user with one click then answering several questions.

      Instead Microsoft said "ha! want to change your browser? We'll make that browser damn near unusable. We want you to suffer for not us

  • Ah the memories. it's fun to see some things don't change

  • I haven't run into the issue indicated in this story, but, for the past several weeks, no Office apps (Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook) are able to launch any links whatsoever in Chrome (on my work laptop running Windows 10 Enterprise).

    If I change the default browser back to Edge, click a link in Outlook and it opens in Edge just fine.
    If the default browser is Chrome, click a link and nothing happens.

    The specificity of the obstacle really makes me think this is intentional and not a bug.

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