The company is now offering Edge as an automatic update

Jun 26, 2020 17:42 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft officially launched the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser in early 2020, allowing users to download the stand-alone installer to run the app on Windows and shortly after that on macOS too.

The rollout of the browser has since advanced, and recently the software giant kicked off the rollout via Windows Update, thus pushing the new Edge as an automatic update on Windows 10 devices.

This made many call it a “forced update,” albeit as I told you not a long time ago, it’s not.

But on the other hand, the approach that Microsoft has been using for pushing Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 devices is considered to be quite aggressive, and I’m seeing more and more reports in this regard. For example, here’s what customers think is wrong about this automatic rollout:  

  • Edge showing up on Windows Update whether you like it or not (in fact, Microsoft has already released a blocker toolkit for those who don’t want the browser)
  • The browser automatically launches after a reboot
  • The first launch runs in full screen
  • Other browser data is imported without consent
  • The new Edge places a shortcut on the desktop and an icon on the taskbar

Someone on Microsoft’s forums claims the push is even more aggressive than that, and the company turns to notifications that show up on the desktop to download Edge even if the browser is already installed on the device.

In other words, Microsoft can’t determine if Edge is already running on the device, so the notification to download the browser shows up anyway. In some cases, this notification is displayed on the desktop even if Edge is running.

“I have Edge Chromium installed on each of the three Windows 10 computers I use for work purposes, and on my MEI/WIP test computer.  Microsoft is unable, apparently, to determine if Edge Chromium is installed, despite the fact that each of the computers is set to "Full Diagnostics", or just doesn't care,” the user who reported this behavior explains.

“While I've actually had the popup display when using Edge (unbelievable), that is infrequent.  However, I get the popups all the time when I'm using Firefox -- top of screen, bottom of screen, all over the place.”

All of these only happen on Windows 10, where the Chromium-powered Edge replaces the legacy version as the new default browser on the operating system.

All of these show that Microsoft is indeed becoming a little too aggressive in its attempt to make everyone use Edge on their Windows 10 devices. The good thing is that there are no reports of Edge being configured as the default browser when Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is set as default, so at this point, it just looks like the company wants to make everyone aware that a new browser is available.

Certainly, insisting so hard for the whole thing might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and Microsoft’s efforts to convince users to try out Edge could easily backfire. I’m already seeing some users claiming they would rather move to Linux than use Edge, so no, a too aggressive campaign might not necessarily be the best way to go.

As a matter of fact, Microsoft Edge is actually a pretty solid browser that can easily serve as a full-time replacement for Google Chrome, for instance. But this still doesn’t mean the software giant can push so hard for everyone to try it out, especially if users have already installed a third-party browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.