Mozilla Displeased That Windows 10 Changes User’s Default Browser

Over at Mozilla HQ, they make web browsers that run on various platforms, including Windows. Over at Microsoft, they have their own new browser that is part of Windows, and they’d really like everyone to use it. According to Mozilla, the new version of Windows steamrolls over a user’s preferred app settings and makes Microsoft’s Edge browser the default. Mozilla is not fond of this change.

In an open CEO-to-CEO letter, Mozilla CEO Chris Beard tells Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that the Mozilla team was disappointed to learn that the the new version of Windows overrides current preferred apps by default, unless the user knows how to change this while installing Windows.

“We appreciate that it’s still technically possible to preserve people’s previous settings and defaults, but the design of the whole upgrade experience and the default settings APIs have been changed to make this less obvious and more difficult,” Beard explains. Most people might be able to figure this out, but they don’t know that they’ll need to do it. That’s the reason for Mozilla’s campaign.

The open letter is because Microsoft hasn’t responded to Mozilla’s queries about the situation or why Windows installation overrides the user’s current preferences.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade for current home users of Windows 7 or 8, which means that it’s sure to be a popular upgrade. Mozilla has put together its own education campaign for users to show them how to get Mozilla’s Firefox back as their default browser if they’ve already upgraded: it’s less than a minute long, but not everyone would be able to figure this out intuitively.

Safeguarding Choice and Control Online [Mozilla]
An Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control [Mozilla]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist