From the «use Edge and like it» department:
Feed: Slashdot
Title: Microsoft To Block Windows 11 Browser Workarounds
Author: BeauHD
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2021 17:40:00 -0500
Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/11/12/211252/microsoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
The creator of EdgeDeflector said this week that the latest Insider build of Windows 11 now blocks all default browser workarounds. Thurrott reports: If this
functionality makes its way to the finished product, it will mark a new, dark chapter for Microsoft, which told the media at the Windows 11 launch that it was
aware that it had made changing app defaults pointlessly difficult, but that it
had not done so maliciously and would fix it. This is the opposite of that claim. "Something changed between Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 (both Windows Insider Preview builds)," EdgeDeflector creator Daniel Aleksandersen writes in a new blog entry. "The build changelog ... omitted the headline news:
you can no longer bypass Microsoft Edge using apps like EdgeDeflector." Basically, EdgeDeflector, as well as third-party browsers like Mozilla Firefox
and Brave, intercept OS-level URL requests that force you to use Microsoft Edge
even when you have gone through the incredibly ponderous steps to make a non-Edge browser the default in Windows 11. But in the latest Insider Preview build, Microsoft is changing how these URL requests work. And it's no longer possible to intercept URL requests that force users to use Edge instead of their
default browser. (In the Insider builds. This functionality will come to mainstream users in the coming months unless we can change Microsoft's collective mind.) "You can't change the default protocol association through registry changes, OEM partner customizations, modifications to the Microsoft Edge package, interference with OpenWith.exe, or any other hackish workarounds,"
Aleksandersen explains. "Microsoft ... just silently ignores the UserChoice registry keys for the protocol in the registry and opens Microsoft Edge instead." It's even worse than that, really, he continues. "Windows will insist
you use Microsoft Edge to a fault even if you brutalize your Windows installation and purge all traces of Microsoft Edge. Windows will open an empty
UWP window and show an error message instead of letting you use your preferred
web browser."
[image 2][2][image 4][4]
Read more of this story[5] at Slashdot.
Links:
[1]: http://twitter.com/home?status=Microsoft+To+Block+Windows+11+Browser+Workarounds%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3Dh12z6 (link)
[2]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (image)
[3]: http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F21%2F11%2F12%2F211252%2Fmicrosoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook (link)
[4]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (image)
[5]: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/11/12/211252/microsoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed (link)
We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
about twenty years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:
We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
about twenty years.
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:
We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
about twenty years.
The difference, perhaps, is that these days Google is doing very similar >things with Chrome. Using other browsers for most Google services
simply doesn't work as well, or at all. If you spoof the browser
string, the functionality comes back.
In article <smshi7$39h$1@solani.org>,
Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> wrote:
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:
We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
about twenty years.
The difference, perhaps, is that these days Google is doing very similar >>things with Chrome. Using other browsers for most Google services
simply doesn't work as well, or at all. If you spoof the browser
string, the functionality comes back.
Easiest way to avoid that issue is to not use Google services to the
greatest extent possible. About the only things I still use with any regularity are YouTube, Play Store, and Maps. I use YouTube through an Invidious instance running in a Docker container on my home server, the Play Store mostly through Aurora, and Maps only on the desktop at home and office (navigation being handled by Magic Earth).
Oh...forgot about Qwant (or DuckDuckGo if Qwant fails) instead of Google search. :)
Easiest way to avoid that issue is to not use Google services to the
greatest extent possible. About the only things I still use with any regularity are YouTube, Play Store, and Maps. I use YouTube through
an Invidious instance running in a Docker container on my home server,
the Play Store mostly through Aurora, and Maps only on the desktop at
home and office (navigation being handled by Magic Earth). I've run
my own mail server since long before Gmail even existed, I sync
contacts and share files through Nextcloud (in another container on
the home server), I spun up a TTRSS instance when Google Reader went
bye-bye, I read this newsgroup and others with trn connected to
Astraweb or Eternal September...I think that's about it for my
de-googling efforts.
Oh...forgot about Qwant (or DuckDuckGo if Qwant fails) instead of Google search. :)
Some good stuff here I wasn't aware of. Will have to check out
Invidious and Aurora.
I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.
By the way you can set up leafnode to proxy NNTP from Eternal
September; gives you a nice local cache too. I love simple/powerful software.
I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.
On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:53:40 -0000 (UTC), Retrograde wrote:
I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.
AFAICT it hasn't been updated in 4 months. I switched to a fork
called yt-dlp[1] and that seems to work fine. It continues to be updated
and is available in PyPi.
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 388 |
| Nodes: | 16 (3 / 13) |
| Uptime: | 06:07:11 |
| Calls: | 8,221 |
| Calls today: | 19 |
| Files: | 13,122 |
| Messages: | 5,872,364 |
| Posted today: | 1 |
