Microsoft does everything to get you to use its Edge web browser. The company, which had already complicated the process for choosing another browser, has just modified Windows 11 to favor the use of Edge. Configuring another default browser in Microsoft’s new OS is not impossible, but still tedious.
It is now acquired. Microsoft is using all means at its disposal to force you to use its Edge web browser. The American company has just changed some settings in Windows 11 to block hacks that facilitate the use of an alternative browser to Edge.
To force Windows 11 users to use Edge, Microsoft has created a new protocol microsoft-edge: // used in native Microsoft apps to generate URLs that can only be opened in Edge. So some Microsoft apps, like the new Widgets in Windows 11, generate specific URLs that, when the user clicks to open them in their browser, actually automatically open in Microsoft Edge. To counter this rather limited practice and allow as many people as possible to use the browser of their choice on Windows, developers have created tools like EdgeDeflector, capable of redirecting all URLs using the microsoft-edge: // protocol so that they open in the web browser that the user has configured by default in the OS. Microsoft has just signed the death sentence for these utilities by releasing an update for Windows 11 which outright blocks their use.
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This episode follows many others. A few months ago, the American company, which does not seem to have learned from its past mistakes, changed the way the settings for configuring a default web browser work in Windows 11. If it was previously possible to select very simply a default web browser for all common tasks, Windows 11 requires you to choose a web browser for each type of existing link. You must therefore access the menu dedicated to your browser settings in Windows 11, then choose one by one each of the extensions authorized to be opened by default in said browser.
If the operation is tedious, it is not impossible. Here’s how to change your default web browser in Windows 11.
1. Go to Settings
Click on the Start menu then enter Windows 11 Settings.
In the left column, select Applications, then enter the Default Applications menu.
2. Choose your browser
In the list of displayed applications, find your web browser and click on it to access its settings.
Then click on the first extension, .htm, then in the pop-up that appears, select the browser to use by default. Click on OK to validate your choice.
3. Repeat the operation for each extension
Now that all of the .htm format files are set to open in your favorite web browser, you have to repeat the same operation for all of the file types or links that you want to be opened with the browser.
If you only want to use your preferred web browser for all web protocols, for example, you will need to repeat the operation eleven times. Good luck !
4. Prevent Edge from opening URLs generated by Microsoft apps
At this point, you have not yet been able to completely configure your favorite web browser by default in Windows 11. Some Microsoft applications installed natively on the OS, such as the new Widgets, may generate clickable web links using Microsoft’s new magic protocol. , microsoft-edge: //, which forces links to open in Edge.
To prevent this, you can prevent Windows from forcing you to use Microsoft Edge by installing EdgeDeflector.
Unfortunately, EdgeDeflector may soon stop working, as Microsoft has planned to block hacks that allow you to bypass the use of Edge.
There is one final solution, however, to try to prevent Microsoft from forcing you to use Edge. Download and run the MSEdgeRedirect utility on your machine. The tool, which runs in the background in Windows, automatically detects and redirects widgets, weather or search box-generated links from Windows 11 to your regular web browser.