What you need to know
- Microsoft will soon allow Windows 11 users in the EEA to uninstall Edge, Bing, and disable certain ads on the operating system.
- Most of these options will continue to be restricted to those within the EEA, so most Windows 11 users will no longer be able to uninstall Microsoft Edge.
- The third-party app MSEdgeRedirect now has a European mode that sets your PC region to “Inside EU” and allows you to uninstall Microsoft Edge.
Some elements of Windows 11 only work with Microsoft Edge. For example, when you click on a news article in a widget board, it opens in Edge, no matter what your default browser is. Similarly,[スタート]Menus and search only open in Edge. Microsoft also prohibits uninstalling or disabling certain apps and experiences on Windows 11, such as Microsoft Edge and Bing for search. But that’s about to change for European users.
To comply with Digital Markets Law in the European Economic Area, Microsoft will allow users to uninstall Edge, Bing, and disable certain ads on Windows 11. The company requires him to be fully compliant by March 6, 2024, and Microsoft will now work to ensure the rollout occurs in time. But what if you’re not in the EEA? Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t offer any new options to uninstall or disable it. The third-party app MSEdgeRedirect comes to the rescue.
MSEdgeRedirect allows you to redirect news, search, widgets, and weather in Windows 11. Now, we’ve also added a European mode that allows you to uninstall Edge. When you switch to European mode with MSEdgeRedirect, the following changes occur:
- Edge cannot be uninstalled
- Users can disable web search
- Narrator script extension is enabled
- File Explorer search can be extended by third parties
- Third-party search providers appear in searches
- Third-party search highlights content with zero search input
- Third parties can customize Gleam on the taskbar
The MSEdgeRedirect team is promising a second European mode that takes a more aggressive approach, but the currently available method simply sets your PC’s region to “within the EU.” You can jump to the changelog below to see all the improvements in version 0.7.5.1.
cutting edge
It’s not that I dislike Microsoft Edge. I use it as my daily browser, and not just because I need to keep its feature set up to date for work. Edge has a lot of useful features, has a great interface, and works with the websites I use. But I still celebrate this victory over Microsoft’s push to force people to use Edge.
When the program, called EdgeDeflector, was first unveiled in 2021, Microsoft explained why it would force you to use Edge when interacting with certain Windows experiences, such as widget boards.
“Windows makes applications and services, including a variety of web browsers, openly available on the platform,” Microsoft said. “At the same time, Windows also provides a specific end-to-end customer experience on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. The search experience from the taskbar is an example of an end-to-end experience that is not designed to be redirected. .If we discover an incorrect redirect, we will issue a fix.”
EdgeDeflector is no longer functional, but other apps are filling the void.
However, I have a hard time believing anything Microsoft says on this matter. Indeed, Microsoft is confident that links from the Windows 11 widget board, Start menu, and search bar are safe. The company appears to have a problem with link redirection, as malicious actors can redirect links to fraudulent, phishing, or other harmful sites.
There is a solution to this concern. The link the user clicks should be able to open in the default browser. If Microsoft is so confident in the links Windows 11 provides and already allows the use of browsers other than Edge, why not allow those endpoints to connect?
Shouldn’t need a law
I can’t believe I even have to write this, but there shouldn’t be a need for a law to allow you to disable ads or uninstall apps on Windows 11. Sadly, that’s exactly what Microsoft needed to make a change. To comply with the European Economic Area (EEA) Digital Markets Act (DMA), Microsoft requires users to uninstall Microsoft Edge, disable Bing in Windows Search, and turn off ads in Microsoft News Feed and Widget Boards. allow that.
Rather than simply giving all of these options to everyone, Microsoft’s management decided to restrict some to people within the EEA. The tech giant has announced that a clean widget board experience will now be available to everyone, regardless of their region. However, at this time Microsoft has not announced that users outside the EEA will be able to uninstall Microsoft Edge or disable Bing in Windows Search.
This whole story proves that Microsoft is more than capable of giving people choice when it comes to browsers. Edge isn’t so tied to Windows that removing the browser will break your PC. However, Microsoft leadership has chosen to roll out most of the changes only in regions where they are required by law.
MSEdgeRedirect change log
- Added European mode (1 of 2 methods implemented)
- Add stock decoder (not used yet, thanks @whamer100)
- Improved installer UX flow
- Delete any remaining legacy files
- Removed Darksky from Weather (thanks Apple…)
- Add support for rounded corners (unused)
- Added StartPage for image search
- Added locale support for Windy.com
- Fixed a bug where Edge would not close
- Added locale support for Weather.com
- Clean up some forgotten allocated resources
- Add placeholder support to custom search URLs (using %query%)
- Added support for arbitrary Ie_to_edge_stub.exe locations
- Add placeholder support to custom image search URLs (using %query%)
- Added recursive failure log to help debug 1.0.0.0
- Added Unsafe Flag Block Logging to aid in debugging 1.0.0.0
- Rather than disabling Bing Chat, restore it to allow redirection.
- Fixed recursion prevention making assumptions about command line parameters
- Add placeholder support to custom weather URLs for latitude, longitude, and locale (using %lat%, %long%, %locale% respectively).
- correction
--win-session-start
Other command line parameters treated as web pages - Fixed active mode file handling (except PDF). Local files you try to open in Edge will now open in Edge