Nothing against people liking Edge, but not being able to uninstall it by normal means made me dump Windows entirely. I mean, wtf? Not being able to uninstall a browser? Like, what?
You don’t hear people complain about Apple (anymore) because it’s accepted that you are buying into a walled-garden ecosystem when you buy Apple. That’s kinda its whole thing.
There are a few issues with Edge on Windows, one being set as the default out of the box, another being it’s inability to be uninstalled, another being it’s the only option when using windows built-on search, and yet another being it’s anything-but-one-click solution depending on the version of Windows in question. In some versions, you have to still go into default apps, find the browser you want, set it as default, click around the popup begging you to try Edge anyway, then go down the list of file extensions and select your browser for all the ones it doesn’t change on its own when you make it the default, some of which may popup again begging you to try Edge first. And when that’s done, you still can’t uninstall it or make it not open when using windows search.
For a product marketed as the opposite of a walled garden, it really is frustrating. Especially considering older versions of Windows had a built-in browser that could be uninstalled and could set another browser as default with one click from inside the new browser.
Yes. Because I don’t want that software so why can’t I uninstall it. Same goes for basically every default program on windows. It’s like not being able remove the ugly lights from the previous owner in your flat even though you got some new nice ones.
For Edge, it’s probably at least partially because Microsoft doesn’t want you to end up in a situation where you have no browsers on your computer. You can’t expect the average user to not be stupid enough to uninstall Edge without having another browser installed, nor can you expect them to figure out how to install a browser without one.
The same goes for things like an image viewer or video player; you can install alternatives, but Microsoft doesn’t want you to end up in a situation where you lose core functionality on your computer. They have no guarantees that whatever alternative you install has the same capabilities as what’s bundled by default.
While this is valid from a user-friendliness standpoint, if someone is to uninstall Edge, even if they are an average user who just doesn’t want edge, they have a risk of breaking the system in its entirety just by uninstalling it. It doesn’t even matter if the person has something like firefox or even google chrome. Causing this much breakage over something as simple as a browser that can easily be replaced shouldn’t be the norm
To me it’s about the direction Microsoft is going. Having that much away and bias over edge and OneDrive. And getting increasingly more aggressive at cloud computing while wanting you to pay more money too them.
All that makes for a really sour experience especially with windows 11. I’ve dumped windows too
Nothing against people liking Edge, but not being able to uninstall it by normal means made me dump Windows entirely. I mean, wtf? Not being able to uninstall a browser? Like, what?
Are you sure you can’t uninstall it?!?
You can but the process is a bit painful and it’ll re-install itself the next day when windows forces an update
You can’t uninstall Safari from Mac either, but I haven’t seen a single cry for that.
Forcefully setting Edge as default browser is definitely a bad behaviour by Microsoft, but thankfully there are one-click solution for that.
You don’t hear people complain about Apple (anymore) because it’s accepted that you are buying into a walled-garden ecosystem when you buy Apple. That’s kinda its whole thing.
There are a few issues with Edge on Windows, one being set as the default out of the box, another being it’s inability to be uninstalled, another being it’s the only option when using windows built-on search, and yet another being it’s anything-but-one-click solution depending on the version of Windows in question. In some versions, you have to still go into default apps, find the browser you want, set it as default, click around the popup begging you to try Edge anyway, then go down the list of file extensions and select your browser for all the ones it doesn’t change on its own when you make it the default, some of which may popup again begging you to try Edge first. And when that’s done, you still can’t uninstall it or make it not open when using windows search.
For a product marketed as the opposite of a walled garden, it really is frustrating. Especially considering older versions of Windows had a built-in browser that could be uninstalled and could set another browser as default with one click from inside the new browser.
You dumped an OS over not being able to uninstall the default browser? Wat
Yes. Because I don’t want that software so why can’t I uninstall it. Same goes for basically every default program on windows. It’s like not being able remove the ugly lights from the previous owner in your flat even though you got some new nice ones.
For Edge, it’s probably at least partially because Microsoft doesn’t want you to end up in a situation where you have no browsers on your computer. You can’t expect the average user to not be stupid enough to uninstall Edge without having another browser installed, nor can you expect them to figure out how to install a browser without one.
The same goes for things like an image viewer or video player; you can install alternatives, but Microsoft doesn’t want you to end up in a situation where you lose core functionality on your computer. They have no guarantees that whatever alternative you install has the same capabilities as what’s bundled by default.
I’m pretty sure you could install edge through the windows store, which is another thing they seem to push a lot lately.
While this is valid from a user-friendliness standpoint, if someone is to uninstall Edge, even if they are an average user who just doesn’t want edge, they have a risk of breaking the system in its entirety just by uninstalling it. It doesn’t even matter if the person has something like firefox or even google chrome. Causing this much breakage over something as simple as a browser that can easily be replaced shouldn’t be the norm
To me it’s about the direction Microsoft is going. Having that much away and bias over edge and OneDrive. And getting increasingly more aggressive at cloud computing while wanting you to pay more money too them. All that makes for a really sour experience especially with windows 11. I’ve dumped windows too
In the same vein, I change roms on my phone when I can’t remove default preinstalled apps.