I manage a ton of consumer Windows devices and have seldom seen this message. It also hasn’t ever appeared on any of the multitude my own Windows devices that I’m using for hours every week.
I have also seen this message with regard to other file associations like .PDF, certain image formats, and archive formats.
Microsoft has plenty of dark patterns to try and loop users back into Microsoft Edge, but I don’t think this is one of them.
Edge just happens to be the “constant” in an ocean of variables because it ships with the OS and is integrated into so many other facets.
The broken .PDF association also defaults back Edge, Image formats to Photos, Archive formats to the Explorer archive utility. I’m sure .txt would scale back to Notepad.
Likely that the browser they were pointed at went missing (executable moved or something), or was crashing at launch, and this is just Windows saying “I can’t find the default you wanted so I am falling back to Edge, otherwise a lot of stuff is going to be broken”.
I disagree with this assessment. If the default association suddenly disappears, I want it to prompt me the next time what I want to use as default instead. Not arbitrarily set a default for me that I do not agree with.
Luckily I run linux now (Arch btw) since last summer.
But Windows isn’t built for advanced users, it’s a mainstream OS built for the average consumer. What you and I might see as “taking control away from the user”, the general population might see as “one less confusing choice” if only they had a clue.
I’m glad you’ve finally found your home with Linux :) There are still too many frustrated Windows power users who still don’t know how much better they could have it.
I use a bit of everything, btw. Platform agnostic with more Windows/MacOS experience only because the nature of my job demands it.
I manage a ton of consumer Windows devices and have seldom seen this message. It also hasn’t ever appeared on any of the multitude my own Windows devices that I’m using for hours every week.
I have also seen this message with regard to other file associations like .PDF, certain image formats, and archive formats.
Microsoft has plenty of dark patterns to try and loop users back into Microsoft Edge, but I don’t think this is one of them.
Edge just happens to be the “constant” in an ocean of variables because it ships with the OS and is integrated into so many other facets. The broken .PDF association also defaults back Edge, Image formats to Photos, Archive formats to the Explorer archive utility. I’m sure .txt would scale back to Notepad.
Likely that the browser they were pointed at went missing (executable moved or something), or was crashing at launch, and this is just Windows saying “I can’t find the default you wanted so I am falling back to Edge, otherwise a lot of stuff is going to be broken”.
I disagree with this assessment. If the default association suddenly disappears, I want it to prompt me the next time what I want to use as default instead. Not arbitrarily set a default for me that I do not agree with.
Luckily I run linux now (Arch btw) since last summer.
I agree, that would be my preference too.
But Windows isn’t built for advanced users, it’s a mainstream OS built for the average consumer. What you and I might see as “taking control away from the user”, the general population might see as “one less confusing choice” if only they had a clue.
I’m glad you’ve finally found your home with Linux :) There are still too many frustrated Windows power users who still don’t know how much better they could have it. I use a bit of everything, btw. Platform agnostic with more Windows/MacOS experience only because the nature of my job demands it.