Microsoft has never frowned upon users who download Chrome instead of using Edge, but now the company has stepped up its campaign to get people to use its built-in browser. Windows 10 and Windows 11 they both started seeing new messages when people browse the Chrome download page, in an attempt to discourage people from installing Google’s rival browser.
Microsoft is betting on Edge and urges not to download Chrome
These new pop-ups should appear on both Windows 11 and Windows 10 just when trying to download the rival browser. Here are a few examples of the messages that appear:
- “Microsoft Edge works with the same technology as Chrome, with Microsoft’s additional warranty”
- “That browser tastes like 2008! Do you know what’s new? Microsoft Edge “
- “’I hate saving money,’ nobody ever said. Microsoft Edge is the best browser for online shopping “
It must be said that messages are a native and exclusive solution to Edge, a sign that Microsoft is starting to focus even more on its default browser.
Either way, this new initiative from Microsoft comes more than three years after the company began testing various ways to try to keep Windows 10 users on Edge and not to install Chrome or Firefox. These tests have never been publicly implemented, but it seems that now the Redmond giant has moved on to a decidedly more direct solution.
Microsoft has also made it more difficult to change the default browsers in Windows 11 by forcing users to use Edge via Windows updates. This latter feature has also raised a number of criticisms related to creating a ‘buy now, pay later’ tool directly in Edge that requires users to use a short-term financing service.