Mozilla reverse engineered Windows 10/11 default browser settings

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https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/13/22671182/mozilla-default-browser-windows-protections-firefox

..In version 91 of Firefox, released on August 10th, Mozilla has reverse engineered the way Microsoft sets Edge as default in Windows 10, and enabled Firefox to quickly make itself the default. Before this change, Firefox users would be sent to the Settings part of Windows 10 to then have to select Firefox as a default browser and ignore Microsoft’s plea to keep Edge…

Mozilla has clearly grown tired of the more complicated way of setting up a default browser, a process that Microsoft is making even harder in Windows 11. “People should have the ability to simply and easily set defaults, but they don’t,” says a Mozilla spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “All operating systems should offer official developer support for default status so people can easily set their apps as default. Since that hasn’t happened on Windows 10 and 11, Firefox relies on other aspects of the Windows environment to give people an experience similar to what Windows provides to Edge when users choose Firefox to be their default browser.”..

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doriel, AlphaCharlie

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Hats off to Mozilla for managing this, but my first thought is how long is it going to be before Microsoft blocks their method? They can’t go letting people have choice on or control over their own computers, now can they…

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I have a Mac, where Safari is the default the Mac came in with, to change (as I did) to another browser all I need to do is set any of my installed browsers I wish to have as the default (in my case Waterfox, Chrome, or FF) to be the default in the “settings” section of the chosen browser. And I can change the “default” to be another browser in the same way, as many times as I need to. Is this not possible also in Windows these days?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

Is this not possible also in Windows these days?

On Windows 10 it complicated, on Windows 11 it is close to impossible.

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OscarCP

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Good move by Mozilla. As Metallica sings: Fight fire with fire! Its Firefox, isnt it.

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Alice

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the Mozilla empire strikes back at MS, haha

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doriel wrote:

Good move by Mozilla. As Metallica sings: Fight fire with fire! Its Firefox, isnt it.

Wonder when/if Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave… will copy this.

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Wonder when/if Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave… will copy this.

Probably won’t be to long.  With Mozilla carrying the torch it’s a good time to pile on.  I hope they do.

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