Important part from the article:
Windows users can still change their default browser through the Windows settings.
Apparently this is done to block browsers like opera to change the default browser without user consent, but I think this just makes it more complicated to change the default browser. Maybe they’ll add a pop up if an application tries to change it, allowing users to accept, but I don’t think that’s likely
like opera the default browser without user consent
That’s a thing? Wtf?
Malware. Opera was bought by loan scammers so this doesn’t surprise me one bit.
Edit: comment from an old reddit post:
From Kenya here. When you fail to pay Okash loan on time they will call random contacts on your contact list and tell them to tell you to pay your loan back
This is where Opera is now.
Honestly a good change. Defaults should be handled by the OS. If a software wants to be your default, it should ask the OS to present the selection screen and allow the user to choose the option.
Yeah, this is a ragebait headline (and I’ll admit that it caught me). This is actually in line with what you see on Android and most Linux distros. It’s also likely that Microsoft doesn’t want you to easily change from Edge, but still. This is better than allowing an application to silently change which applications open things on your computer.
As long as that applies to all browsers equally. I don’t know the current state of things but if I remember correctly, Firefox already circumvented the earlier default protection method, because Microsoft made it so that their own Edge browser didn’t require those extra steps that were forced upon all other browsers.
After reading the article it seems likely this is still the case. They said operating system links still open in edge even when you have another browser configured, so Microsoft is still putting Edge in a privileged position. I guess we just have to wait and see how privileged it ends up being.
