edge

Users have reported Microsoft Edge opening up and displaying tabs they'd just had open in Chrome. The most generous reading is that a "helpful" feature is triggering by mistake. Users have been extremely confused to start up their computer and not ... only find Edge open unexpectedly, but that it had replicated the sites they'd been using on Chrome. The Verge's Tom Warren noted he didn't even realize it was Edge running at first until he investigated why he was logged out on several of the open sites. The mystery isn't how this is happening but rather why it is happening. Edge has several ... (view more)

Microsoft has experimented with one of its most audacious attempts yet to persuade users to prefer the Edge browser over Google Chrome. It appears the plan, which effectively involved full-size banner "ads" on the Chrome website, will not proceed ... after the tests. Technically speaking, the Microsoft Edge browser is built using "Chromium" code (which is open source), which is the exact same code that Google's Chrome browser uses. The only difference between Edge and Chrome is that Edge has been customized with its own set of unique features and is branded as being Microsoft Edge. That ... (view more)

Microsoft has abandoned plans to recommended websites in the Windows 11 Start menu. It hasn't said exactly why but suggests user feedback played a role. An idea to suggest searching on Microsoft Edge when copying text has also been ditched. It was ... the latest attempt to promote the browser to Windows users. The two ideas were both rolled out last November to users of the Dev channel in the Windows Insider test program. That's the first time potential new features are available to anyone outside of Microsoft. People who choose to use the Dev channel are particularly eager to see new ideas, ... (view more)

Microsoft Edge is getting what looks suspiciously like a virtual private network (VPN). It comes with a catch and requires some serious trust in Microsoft. The "Secure Network" feature is now mentioned in a support document and has also shown up in ... Edge for some users who've signed up for early access to in-development features. It appears to be a variant of a VPN, which involves routing internet connection through a VPN provider. The data traveling back and forth between the provider and the user is encrypted in a setup likened to a "tunnel" that stops it being accessible ... (view more)

Microsoft has gone ahead with plans to make it easier to change the browser in Windows 11. It means an end to a heavily criticized policy that made it more frustrating to use something other than Microsoft's own Edge browser. In recent versions of ... Windows, users could set a rival browser as the default option in Windows relatively easily. Once set, Windows would then use the chosen browser automatically for relevant tasks such as opening a link or a saved web page. In Windows 10, users could set a different browser for every type of file or connection type an app could use, for example .htm ... (view more)

Scammers are tricking Microsoft Edge users with a bogus software update. It's something of a backhanded compliment to the browser finding an audience. Security company Malwarebytes says it worked with the independent research team "nao_sec" to ... identify the scam. At the moment it appears to be specifically targeting users in South Korea with ransomware, though the tactic could easily be adapted. (Source: techradar.com ) According to the researchers, the scam begins with a malicious ad, usually posted on a page with a lot of advertising. That's likely to make it harder to identify the culprit. ... (view more)

Mozilla has found a way to make it easier to set Firefox as a default browser in Windows. The move may raise eyebrows at Microsoft, as it involved getting past measures designed to combat malware. By default, Windows doesn't let users set an ... application as the default for a particular task (web browsing or otherwise) within the application itself. That's in principle a sensible idea as it reduces the risk of malware setting itself as a default app or tricking a user into doing so. Once established as a default app, the malware would have a big advantage as it would be opened more often, ... (view more)

Microsoft is again bugging users to switch their default search engine to Bing. There's a way to get rid of the messages, but strangely it's hidden away in the Edge browser. The pop-up message seen by some users says that "Microsoft recommends ... different browser settings. Want to change them?" and then gives the not-entirely-comprehensive choice of "Yes, change settings" and "Maybe later". It's a sneaky message in a couple of ways. The first is that while it promises "Search that gives back time and money" and "Fast and secure search results with Bing", the message doesn't actually explain ... (view more)

Microsoft is offering cash back to customers who shop online using the Edge browser. The program promotes both the browser and the Bing search website. It's no secret that Edge and Bing are far less popular than their Google equivalents. Indeed, ... Microsoft even adopted an "if you can't beat them" attitude by launching a new version of Edge that uses the same open-source Chromium code that powers Google Chrome. Now Microsoft is beefing up its Bing Rebates program to make it easier to use in Microsoft Edge. The program already lets customers get cashback of up to 10 percent when they purchase ... (view more)

Chrome and Edge are to get a fix for a problem with saving bookmarks and other files. The glitch is the result of an incompatibility with some anti-virus software. The problem involved security tools which were set to scan files on a computer in ... real-time. Often this involves "freezing" a file immediately as it's written to disk so the security software can check for threats and neutralize them before they have an effect. Unfortunately the way this works means it didn't always go smoothly with Chrome, resulting in the browser "freezing", then simply giving up on saving the file. This caused ... (view more)