Among the big controversies in Windows 11 are the extra steps needed to switch out your default browser away from Microsoft Edge. Mozilla was one company that was critical of Microsoft for this, and even with recent changes in Windows 11 to make the task easier, the beef is still going on. The maker of the Firefox web browser still aren’t quite pleased.
According to a statement from a Mozilla spokesperson sent out to Neowin and other publications, Mozilla thinks more can be done on Microsoft’s end. Recent moves from Microsoft on the default browser situation are seen as a “step in the right direction,” but Mozilla still wants an easier solution for respecting the default web browser choice in Windows.
That’s because even with the recent update in Windows 11, which lets you set a default browser with one click, you still need to manually swap out the default for select file types. Those file types include PDF, SHTML, and SVG, and are still commonly used by other web browsers you might want to install. These file types aren’t changed and could still leave remnants of Edge behind, keeping Firefox and users of other web browsers from taking full control of their default choice.
“More can be done to respect default browser choice on Windows. People should have the ability to simply and easily set defaults, and all operating systems should offer official developer support for default status,” said a Mozilla spokesperson.
“In practice, we’d like to also see progress on reducing the number of steps required to set a new browser as default, and on opening and making APIs available for apps to set a default that other Microsoft applications use,” the spokesperson added.
The recent optional March update for Windows 11 introduced the ability to set a default web browser with one click, so there is some evidence that Microsoft is listening to feedback on this matter. Yet Microsoft has somewhat of a history of pushing its free web browsers onto Windows users. This was seen with Internet Explorer, for which Microsoft famously faced antitrust charges in 1998.
Microsoft, though, has been more open to competing web browsers. In a break from the past, it allowed third-party web browsers to be listed in the Microsoft Store in Windows 11. Firefox and Opera are now all available for download directly from Microsoft’s own service, giving folks more web-browsing options.
