100 days later: Microsoft still steers Windows and Copilot users to Edge
Mozilla says Microsoft still steers non-EEA Windows and Copilot users toward Edge, 100 days after its report.
One hundred days after its Over the Edge 2.0 report, Mozilla says Microsoft still uses Windows setup, Search, Widgets, file associations, and Windows Backup to steer users toward Edge outside the European Economic Area. Fairer defaults already exist in the EEA under the Digital Markets Act, but Edge remains pre-pinned and Copilot opens links in a side panel in every region tested, including Europe. Mozilla says it shared the findings with Microsoft, received no meaningful change, and is now pressing regulators in the United States, United Kingdom, India, and Brazil.
- Mozilla says Edge-steering patterns remain 100 days after Over the Edge 2.0.
- Outside the EEA, Search, Widgets, file types, and setup still favor Edge.
- Copilot opens web links in a side panel in every region tested, including Europe.
- Windows Backup can restore Edge as the default during Windows 11 migration.
- Mozilla is taking the findings to regulators in the US, UK, India, and Brazil.
Full article798 words · extracted from blog.mozilla.org · click to collapse
One hundred days ago, Mozilla released Over The Edge 2.0, the second independent report from leading experts on deceptive design Dr. Harry Brignull and Cennydd Bowles, on how Windows, Edge, Bing, and Copilot are designed to steer people away from the browser they chose.
We published the report, and the researchers published the evidence for anyone to analyze.
Browsers are a powerful tool. So it’s no surprise that the history of the web has many examples of powerful platforms trying to deny people browser choice. Now, as AI reshapes our online experiences, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Browsers are a key distribution layer for AI tools and services, while still determining many of the privacy and security functionality people rely on every day. Steering people toward one browser can therefore shape which AI services reach users and the protections that come with it.
We also shared the report with Microsoft and talked to them about the issues raised in the report. We knew that an immediate change was unlikely, but we hoped that, when faced with independent evidence of harmful design practices impacting Windows users, they would also want better for people.
Instead, it became clear that Microsoft will respect user choice only when it is forced to. It is important to think about what that means for a company whose operating system runs on more than a billion machines. Microsoft’s standard for respecting people’s choices is legal compliance. Not what’s best for its users. Not its own published principles. Not what’s technically feasible. Not even what it already does for users in Europe.
That’s the most shocking part. Not that Microsoft engages in such tactics – we’ve seen that before. It’s the fact that a better version of Windows already exists, and it is already available today – but only if you live in the European Economic Area (EEA), where the Digital Markets Act (DMA) forced the issue. If you live in the United States, India, the United Kingdom, or most other locations around the world, your experience and your freedom to choose for yourself are worse.
One hundred days later, here is what people outside of the EEA still get:
- The Windows 10 message “You’re almost done setting up your PC” uses tricky wording to pull people off the default they picked.
- Windows Search and Widgets open links in Edge instead of the browser set as default.
- Windows keeps Edge as the default for common browser file types like PDFs and SVG images, even after another browser has been set as default.
And people in the EEA also deserve better:
- Edge remains pre-pinned to the taskbar; this seems to directly violate the “principled approach to app pinning and app defaults.”
- Copilot, Microsoft’s AI tool opens web links in a side-panel instead of the browser people chose, in every region tested, Europe included.
- Windows Backup, the tool Microsoft uses to guide people through the migration to Windows 11, silently tries to set Edge as the default when it restores a PC and fails to properly bring the user’s own browser along.
Most of the 2024 patterns are still there. The 2026 patterns are worse. Microsoft is using new surfaces like Copilot and the migration to Windows 11 to further undermine user choice.
Our ask has always been simple: First, give all Windows users the fairer designs that are live in the EEA – regardless of where they are located. Second, stop the remaining harmful design practices that persist in the EEA. That means:
- Stopping the remaining harmful design tactics in the EEA and ship that standard worldwide.
- Honoring people’s browser choice everywhere it is currently ignored, including Windows Search, Widgets, Copilot, and Windows Backup restoration.
- Applying Microsoft’s own 2023 app pinning principles to Edge itself.
The Mozilla-commissioned report has never been about intent. It’s about accountability and Microsoft’s responsibility to stop undermining people’s choices. The practices we documented need to change. Statements about intent are not a substitute for action.
In the past 100 days, we’ve stopped waiting for Microsoft to act. Instead, we’ve stepped up public pressure on the company to respect people’s choices.
We are also taking the report’s findings to regulators and policymakers. In Europe, the DMA is the only thing that has moved Microsoft. Everywhere else, the lesson is the same: Microsoft ships only when a regulator requires fairer design.
We hope that regulators in the US, the UK, India, and Brazil are paying attention.
Microsoft can do better. It already has, for people in the EEA.
Until it does the same in all jurisdictions, we will keep pointing out the company’s choices and the impact they have on hundreds of millions of users who want something different.
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