Science & Technology

Windows 10 S forces you to use Edge and Bing

James Walker
Digital JHournal
Wed, 03 May 2017 17:49 UTC

Microsoft has confirmed that its new Windows 10 S operating system will not allow you to change the default browser or search engine. You'll be forced into using Microsoft Edge and Bing, although you can still install alternative software.

Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 S at its Microsoft Education event yesterday. The locked-down operating system has been devised as a school-friendly sandboxed platform to rival Google's Chrome OS.

Windows 10 S is locked to the Windows Store and cannot run desktop programs. Shortly after the event, it emerged the platform has another important limitation: You cannot change the default web browser.

While you are allowed to install Google Chrome, Firefox or another browser, Windows will not let you set it as the default. If you open a link to a webpage from another program, it will always open in Edge. If you search for something, whether in Internet Explorer or in Edge, Windows will always use Bing to complete the query. There is no way to set an alternative provider as the default.

"Microsoft Edge is the default web browser on Microsoft 10 S," said Microsoft. "You are able to download another browser that might be available from the Windows Store, but Microsoft Edge will remain the default if, for example, you open an .htm file. Additionally, the default search provider in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer cannot be changed."

Microsoft has already run into hot water around its questionable handling of the default browser setting in Windows 10. Regular editions of the operating system are known to reset your choices after each major update. Microsoft is now going a step further, arbitrarily forcing you to use Edge and Bing. The company suggested that only using Edge helps you to browse more safely. Microsoft is now leading itself open to investigations by the EU's anti-competition watchdog. The company is no stranger to anti-trust investigations, having previously been forced to let new users explicitly choose their web browser. The sanction was applied in response to historical cases of Internet Explorer being set as the default browser on older Windows versions.

It is worth noting that Windows 10 S' main rival, Chrome OS, also prohibits changing the default web browser. This is due in part to the essential role Chrome plays in running the entire operating system. Google does allow you to change the default search provider, at least letting you customise where information is sourced from.

Windows 10 S comes preinstalled out of the box on Microsoft's new $999 Surface Laptop. The company's decision to block desktop apps on a flagship premium laptop has already raised some eyebrows. Now it has emerged that the MacBook Pro rival also forces you into using Edge and Bing, some prospective customers could be turned away.

The Surface Laptop does include a free optional upgrade to Windows 10 Pro but this has to be enabled manually through the Store. Microsoft is marketing the device as a Windows 10 S product, potentially leading to confusion over its actual capabilities. Buyers of other Windows 10 S devices will be the worst off though - the upgrade fee for third-party devices costs $49, making Microsoft's $189 headline devices no cheaper than a regular Windows 10 Home model.

Reader Comments

Good Optics · 2017-05-04T05:08:14Z

F*ck Win 10 . . . XP Black runs like a dream every single day

IncenDiary · 2017-05-04T05:16:25Z

Edge cannot stay open for more than a minute on my work pc win 10 - it just terminates no matter what u in the middle of, since it was installed up to today with a million zillion patches. Now there's progress for you... /Sarcasm

mythoughts · 2017-05-04T05:17:36Z

F-ck win 10 xp for me too. win 8 and 10 are cartoonish and whorish

Potatoes and Tomatoes · 2017-05-04T05:46:53Z

I'd like for next year, if we all make it, to see a commemorative version of Win 98 released. I'm still on Win 7 on one laptop ( ) and have Win 10 on another ( )

griffin · 2017-05-04T08:16:31Z

The inevitable vulnerability of a totalitarian software monoculture ensures that the Microsoft Borg's victims are all doomed. Linux rules - or rather, Linux users rule their own machines - while Microsoft users can only look forward to an endless Hell.

Alan Reid · 2017-05-04T09:38:56Z

The day that Microsoft started forcing software onto users it became very hated, Some of the Youtube videos i have seen over flow with anger about all sorts of things Microsoft figures it can push you around with. Microsoft is losing users trust at an ever increasing pace and soon the specter of a quality replacement is going to doom them to the circular file. We have been driven away, We know eventually a rival is going to wade into the murk and make a killing doing what Microsoft is now unwilling to do. Windows 8 through 10 S are seen as a waste of money. Too much of them dictating what you can and cannot do with your own belongings. This anger is real and growing daily and there is a market for a well thought out replacement system to deal with this monopolistic company. If i awoke to a computer that over the night just self upgraded to a whole new operating system i did not want... I would be very motivated to deal with that invasion of my privacy. The computer world is becoming a real threat to them and this constant need to force controls onto your machine to help them is going to fail. This was seen when they stopped supporting XP, That pissed off a lot of users, Anger that this company will not recover from. That day will be the undoing of Microsoft, It might take some time to happen but it is a fact of commerce. When Microsoft sold out to big brother.in it's early years (win XP years) they started down the road to computer revolution. Gates was a very smart kid, He is a very stupid man, and now the turds floating in the Microsoft toilet need to be flushed. Easy is not going to keep them where they are if they don't respect the user that is paying the bills and keeping the lights on at Microsoft. Google is not much better. A smart user is watching all this forcing behavior of the last 10 years and is thinking and working on a great big box full of 'fuck off Microsoft'

Alan Reid · 2017-05-04T10:01:43Z

If a brand new whizz bang laptop is for sale and i have a big assed wad of cash to spend, If that fancy computer is loaded with anything above Windows 7 i pass it by. This is starting to hurt hardware producers bottom line, and they can see this, If the operating system is going to hamper sales then they will have to replace that system with something that is going to work for sales. I boycott any computer that has higher than Win 7 as a base operating system. And i am sure that most hardware producers are all too informed about this anti Microsoft backlash. Windows is not the only way to do operating systems. Hardware manufacture is a very big game, once the sales slump they will be forced into the fix for that slump, or out of the business. Once they start saying 'Fuck off Microsoft' it will be the new day and perhaps we will bring in the cash for that cool new computer. As it is i will make do with old hardware and open source software. it is amazing what you can build for zero cash these days with all that is floating around.

aimarok · 2017-05-04T10:18:21Z

Use free software. Not just because it's free as a beer, but free from corporate greed. Windows XP is too old in terms of security and new hardware support. Let it rest it peace.

Good Optics · 2017-05-04T16:29:40Z

aimarok Nah, security is a non-issue; it's not the boogey man under the bed that MS tells you it is. And if you have you want you can use Sophos to set your paranoia level to 10. It takes some doing but it'll work just fine [Link]
XP Black supports SSDs and almost any video you want. I haven't played with 4K because I don't care and if required USB 3.0 can be done with a 3rd party plug-in card.

aimarok · 2017-05-05T09:30:13Z

Try to install Windows XP on any modern laptop to feel the level of hardware support :-) If it does the job for you then fine. But don't expect it do it for the rest.

Ragnar · 2017-05-04T10:38:35Z

Winblows 10 sucks soooooooooo bad! I despise it. Even turning off all the settings that snoop and record what you do, I still just don't like how it works. There's absolutely NO way I'd ever buy any version of Windows above 8. I agree XP, even 98 run better then 10 hands down. If I buy a new PC, as opposed to just building one, I'd buy a blank HD and install something other then 10 on it.

Mr. Globalist gates, the eugenics man, can kiss my ass!

Ragnar · 2017-05-04T10:44:06Z

Something else that bothers me.. Used to, in the 1990's, you could find web sites dedicated to cracking programs like windows. They'd show you how to alter settings that MS didn't want used altering. As well as just doing useful things. Try finding a web site that has any info on getting into OS's, even on cell phones. Good luck! They've successfully sanitized the Internet of all of this sort of data.

davidcarswell · 2017-05-04T13:39:24Z

Ragnar you are mistaken. Jacks, cracks, secrets are everywhere. Takes seconds to find them. There are also hundreds if not thousands of private forums for such discussions as well as private and exclusive torrent trackers.there are actually more today than there ever were.

Divide By Zero · 2017-05-04T11:29:56Z

Not much of an alternative out there.

Mac/apple is garbage. Think windows is restrictive? On Mac you don't get to change many settings. It's the i phone of desktop lol.

At least on windows 10, I can disable unwanted features.

Linux is interesting but the problem is a lack of standards. I had the file manager, pcmanfm, not able to connect to some shares and scp sessions. I searched high and low to find that this is a known issue for years, and no fix in sight. I tried to find another app for this, like windows has many of, no luck...

Linux misses out on

Android/chrome os is Google's version of Apple's mac. As we see on the phones, android has stated to do shady things like the iPhone. Also android, if not rooted is almost as locked down as Apple's os.

As always, money breaks things. Greedy bastards who not only create buggy outsourced code, but purposely lock it down. But I'm glad that Microsoft hasn't neutered those who are techie from modifying system settings and components like apple/Google have.

davidcarswell · 2017-05-04T13:58:43Z

Divide By Zero you can disable almost anything on Mac OS you just have to know how. It involves knowing UNIX commands and the terminal app or single user booting. We're apple to actually allow all the settings to be changed the headache it would cause for Apple would be enormous and Apple users would have the same dismal experience and lack of productivity as Windows users do. Morons when given access to change things they don't understand-do just that and unfortunately they often change so many things in a short time they are unable to reverse their actions.

Once again you can do a lot of system preference changes on macs. Maybe as many if not more than Windows.

Now Apples new release of an OS every year is a complete huge mess especially because the new features are mundane, involve long lived OS standards being dropped, dumbing down of software at user level, and how insanely bloated and cluttered the code gets each year as operating systems should be around for 3-4 years to allow debugging, stability, and longterm workflow stability. Each upgrade has new API's for third parties to avoid code software and forces third parties to follow the same disaster but not by choice causing them to have instability and workflow disasters that when the next years OS arrives they've yet to debug this years. The problems snowball with each version.

Why? Cause Apple has hired PC Windows centric developers who are not mac centric or Apple fanboys (LOL) and this is what you get. Bad software and the hardware is devolving by the same bad management.

Apple is quickly heading toward a fall but not without its long termed base sounding the warnings. They don't seem to care because they are indebted to there shareholders to make them money in the short term.

aimarok · 2017-05-05T09:42:28Z

PCManFM is a part of LXDE, which is a pretty immature desktop environment. Try another one. There is a good choice of DEs on Linux: Gnome, KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, Mate etc. I use Mate on my working laptop for several years and it does it's job well.

The most brilliant part of open source software that it gives you the power to fix things when they break. Or you can add new features to your favorite software. You have the choice .

Linux is interesting but the problem is a lack of standards. I had the file manager, pcmanfm, not able to connect to some shares and scp sessions. I searched high and low to find that this is a known issue for years, and no fix in sight. I tried to find another app for this, like windows has many of, no luck...

nedlud · 2017-05-05T09:23:11Z

THE NEED FOR SPEED

Governments and corporations and various 'front' organizations across the globe are working feverishly to provide you with a complex robotic, computerized copy of yourself.

At some point, your services will no longer be required. The new 'you' will become what you could never be.

This complex, robotic and computerized copy of yourself will obey the government and do the blessed work of the corporations better than you ever could. It will serve the rich and famous and the very, very important ones, fabulously!

Do not refuse this 'gift'.

For the new you is part of the ever growing need for speed and accuracy in a highly competitive marketplace and the march to infinite speed and infinite accuracy.

And the old you will never even know you existed.

You won't be missed. No one will notice and no one will care.

This will be a great thing.

Duh.

ned, out

TrhthHunter · 2017-05-05T12:52:40Z

I cannot understand why companies put up with MS. Productivity does't seem to matter to them. It just seems to get worse and worse.

Even XP put windows overhead before the user. Your computer wasn't slow. Windows was playing with itself at your expense.

I use Linux on one of my computers, but try to tolerate Windows because of software.

I bought a new computer with Windows 10 recently. It was unusable for the first 2 days because of updates...on a NEW computer!

I would love to participate in class action law suite against them.