Outlook suddenly started opening links in Edge, disregarding my default browser settings

Current-era Microsoft continuing to push the boundaries of consent.

Microsoft Edge is a good browser but for some reason Microsoft keeps trying to shove it down everyone’s throat and make it more difficult to use rivals like Chrome or Firefox. Microsoft has now started notifying IT admins that it will force Outlook and Teams to ignore the default web browser on Windows and open links in Microsoft Edge instead.

toasteranimation, (edited )
@toasteranimation@lemmy.world avatar

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stanleytweedle,

Tell that to my CIO.

RGB3x3,

Tell that to literally every single company. Name one that actually uses Linux for user desktops and laptops.

Windows has such a monopoly on business user-facing systems, it’s not even a competition.

zikk_transport2,

Devops here. The company I work in has enforced managed Windows laptops.

What I did was to get BIOS password, test everything in Arch Linux VM, everything works - my work laptop now runs on Arch Linux.

Been 4 months and haven’t got cought. Also managed to get rid of company’s proxy server and DNS, because companys resources are available without proxy via VPN, and everything else - via proxy, so I wrote a bash script with the help of ChatGPT that implements “VPN Split” post-VPN connection, also removes company DNS servers from /etc/resolv.conf and 🎉. Works like a charm. I can even open p*rnhub and company wouldn’t even tell as it goes directly through my router. Also the laptop is now fast AF, zero proxy configuration (unlike in Windows for WSL), it’s perfect now.

And that’s in a large international company where Windows/Macs are enforced. I guess I am genius there… 😅

heili,

My employer insists that only Windows is acceptable, which makes my life in software engineering very difficult. No Mac, no Linux, only WIndows. I had to fight tooth and nail to get anything else and now they are still trying to get me to go back to using Windows because “we don’t support” anything else.

stanleytweedle,

The funny thing to me is I’m a sysadmin and I use a linux desktop and most of the devs I work with do also. The only people that use Windows desktops are end users that pretty much only use Office anyway and their PCs are basically used as advanced typewriters plus youtube. The C-suite has Macs but demands desktops run Windows because it’s all they know. We’ve even gotten rid of all the garbage legacy apps so the only reason we use Windows is the stuck habits of people that don’t even use Windows themselves.

But I know we’ll never stop paying MS. Windows is basically the Imperial measurement system or qwerty keyboards at this point. Our grandchildren will use it because our grandparents used it, well- not exactly but you get the idea.

traveler01,

That’s how it works with Microsoft. Even search in Windows disregards completely your default browsers settings into opening them straight in Edge.

Ad4mWayn3,

I mean, do people actually use the search feature for anything besides looking for files IN your system?

traveler01,

And Microsoft thinks that if they don’t find the file we want them to search on a search engine we don’t use on a browser we don’t use.

Stuka,

Microsoft thinks that if you type the full word you must not actually be looking for the thing you typed

heimchen,

It also ignores the files and apps on your PC

traveler01,

They’re always ruining the UX to push their own system.

dimlo,

Gates went too many times to china so he knows how to push boundaries all the way

SilentMobius,

Doesn’t surprise me at all, the company I work for has gone all in with AzureAD SSO and that will only work on Edge (edge supplies info for the MS asset verification software that constantly eats my CPU) so now we can’t use anything other than Edge for any internal service and need to develop for Edge if we are writing an internal tool.

ramble81,

It also works just fine with Chrome, there’s an extension you need to install. It’s a Chromium feature they’re leveraging. I know this because we’re in the same boat as you. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with Firefox.

SilentMobius,

Not sure how the setup differs but ours does not work with chrome, only edge

SpaghettiYeti,

Yup.

Sabakodgo, (edited )

Similarly, Outlook on Android began to display ads for me around a week ago. So I’m currently using K-9 mail and Etar.

Vitaly,
@Vitaly@feddit.uk avatar

I use k-9 too!

sr3,

K-9 is very decent. Don’t forget to contribute:

k9mail.app/contribute

WatTyler,

“This change is designed to create an easier way for Outlook and Microsoft Teams users to reduce task switching across windows and tabs to help stay focused,” says Katy Asher, senior director of communications at Microsoft, in a statement to The Verge. “By opening browser links in Microsoft Edge, the original message in Outlook or Teams can also be viewed alongside web content to easily access, read and respond to the message, using the matching authenticated profile. Customers have the option to disable this feature in settings.”

I don’t know if this is a neurodivergent thing but I 500% could never see myself in a position I could say something I knew to be such BS and put my name to it.

hoshikarakitaridia,

Mmm yes, let the snake oil flow through you.

They’d do better finally fixing teams. We’re talking years after release, and there’s still no option to change my status behaviour. It forces DnD when I get called, it puts me afk after only 5min, …

Their software does not fundamentally work very well. So even if this bs would be talking about an actual feature, that’s some stone age project management right there.

WatTyler,

Why fix, when you can sell?

Ragerist,
@Ragerist@lemmy.world avatar

At this point it’s better to put it down, like the sick panda it is!

It’s buggy, bloated, slow and with a horrible UI.

Sinister_Grape,
@Sinister_Grape@lemmy.world avatar

My job involves a fair amount of paperwork (I know, I know, what year is this?) and the fact that Teams marks me as inactive when my hands are off the mouse for a couple of minutes borderline offends me.

AnUnusualRelic,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

Maybe that’s why you don’t work in marketing.

fossilesque, (edited )
@fossilesque@mander.xyz avatar

This caused me to rage quit my emails this morning. I’m going to back to Thunderbird.

JoJo,

This happened to me this morning. And because the link was from a work email but I was logged in on my personal account, Edge wanted me to sign in to view it, requiring time-wasted on a 2FA process for no good reason whatsoever (obv I just closed Edge and copied the link over to Firefox).

The loss of productivity is large regardless of which method you choose to view the link. May this be the beginning of the end for Microsoft. I am fuming.

hyper,
@hyper@lemmy.world avatar

All aboard the anti-trust train 🚂💨

LocutusOfBeetleBorg,

How many times must they be sued for this exact thing? It would be nice if they faced some real consequences this time.

WarmSoda,

It’s like it’s thier white whale. The sole reason the entire company exists. Every department. Every acquisition. Every decision they’ve ever made as a whole is to eventually get you to use thier web browser.

Bill gates makes the call every Tuesday that everyone at Microsoft fears: IS IT COMPLETED? GET IT DONE.

McBinary,
McBinary avatar

I switched to thunderbird a little while back when they started adding advertisements that look like actual email into my paid for windows application. Nope.

AgentCodyBanks,

I work for a break/fix shop supporting users in many different environments and I say I have never seen ads disguised as emails in Outlook. I see a lot of other very frustrating things from them but never that.

McBinary,
McBinary avatar

Here's an example.

This is the web owa version, but it looks similar in the windows client as well. I don't have an example from my own inbox because I uninstalled outlook, but this is the same thing.

Deniable1477,

I feel like this is common practice. Synergy between company’s product is very common. There are alternatives you can use instead of outlook (ex. thunderbird, mailbird, etc). If you don’t like Microsoft practices then you can opt out and find an alternative. But speaking on behalf of the less techy savvy consumer i would be pissed off about this.

b3an,
@b3an@lemmy.world avatar

What keeps me from moving to Firefox is the Translation option. Edge and Chrome are so good at quickly making the page available to read in my language. Firefox is not so good at this and requires adding which don’t seem to deliver the same functionality. At least from what I have found. So if someone has tips there, please share.

Ibaudia,
@Ibaudia@lemmy.world avatar

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/…/traduzir-paginas-web/?…

b3an,
@b3an@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks ^_^

Andreas,
@Andreas@feddit.dk avatar

“Suddenly”? This has been happening for a long time. If you click on outbound links from built-in Windows apps, they used to always open in Edge unless you used a tool named EdgeDeflector to redirect them to your preferred browser. In 2021, they killed EdgeDeflector by making it impossible to redirect links with the microsoft-edge:// protocol baked in, even if you go deep into the registry settings to change this. They will eventually do this to Outlook and Teams too and get away with it, just like they got away with restricting EdgeDeflector.

vulfneck,

It's annoying, for sure.

File > Options > Advanced > Link Handling > Open hyperlinks from Outlook in: Default Browser

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