Unless you tick “always use this app,” the default will never be changed. It’s the only opportunity to easily switch browsers, though. Like Windows 10, there’s a prompt that appears when you install a new browser and open a web link for the first time.

The Verge reported that Microsoft is making it harder to switch default browsers in Windows 11, saying that: “In Windows 11, Microsoft has changed the way you set default apps.

Jreddit users found that Microsoft was automatically importing Firefox data into Edge without their permission.

Not the new browser, and not even the browser that was there as a default one previously.”

Same thing tends to happen when a new browser is installed – for some reason, it leads to restoring Edge as the default option.

JanuVivaldi CEO and founder Jon von Tetzchner (who also founded Opera in the 1990s) weighed in as well, saying: “Every time Windows 10 upgrades, it changes the default browser to Edge.

Unfortunately, it didn’t result in any meaningful progress, hence this letter.”

He wrote: “When we first saw the Windows 10 upgrade experience that strips users of their choice by effectively overriding existing user preferences for the Web browser and other apps, we reached out to your team to discuss this issue. JMozilla CEO Chris Beard penned an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella asking Microsoft to stop overriding user choices by setting Edge as the default browser when upgrading to Windows 10.

If you want to skip over the history lesson, go ahead. If you haven’t heard of the various ways Microsoft has used dark patterns to get people to use Edge, here’s a quick recap. Well, that is over - if you choose to install Edge on certain Linux distributions (like Ubuntu). If you are like most deskop Linux users, if you have heard of the various intrusive ways Microsoft has used to “encourage” Windows users to use their Chromium-based browser, Edge, you probably smugly thought something like “well, it is Windows, so they can do what they think is best on the platform they own” or “sounds like a good reason to use Linux”.

Fedora install microsoft edge