One hundred days ago, Mozilla released 'Over The Edge 2.0,' an independent report by experts Dr. Harry Brignull and Cennydd Bowles detailing how Windows, Edge, Bing, and Copilot are designed to steer people away from their chosen browsers. The report, shared with Microsoft, documented specific design patterns that undermine user choice. Despite the findings, Microsoft's practices remain largely unchanged outside of legally mandated reforms, continuing to deploy harmful tactics at nearly every step of the user journey.
Microsoft's Windows Search and Widgets open links in Edge regardless of the user's default browser setting. The Windows Backup utility, intended to ease the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11, silently resets the default browser to Edge during restoration, failing to preserve the user's choice. Additionally, Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant overrides user preferences by opening web links in an Edge side-panel instead of the browser the user has chosen.
The impact of these tactics varies by region due to regulatory pressure. Within the European Economic Area, where the Digital Markets Act (DMA) has required changes, Microsoft has reduced some of the most egregious patterns. However, even in Europe, certain practices like Edge remaining pre-pinned to the taskbar persist. Outside the EEA—in regions such as the United States, India, and the United Kingdom—users encounter the full breadth of harmful design patterns, demonstrating that Microsoft respects user choice only when forced by law.