The new changes brought by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) began to be implemented in Windows and other Microsoft applications and services. One major change is related to Edge popups. When you try to change your default browser, you will no longer see advertising pop-ups for Edge in Windows 10 and 11.
Before there was a pop-up showing the advantages of the Edge browser if you dared to install another browser like Chrome.
If you remember there were also Microsoft Edge ads in the “Selected app” section when you change the “Open with” settings in Windows 11 or 10.
For example, when you tried to change the default application for “HTTP links,” the “Selected application” section suggested Microsoft Edge. As of February 29th, however, Microsoft has removed the “Featured App” section. Now, you'll only see all available apps, and Windows won't force you to use Edge.
This change applies to Windows 10 and 11 and is available even for Windows users outside of Europe.
Microsoft has previously treated Edge as a system component, making it difficult to uninstall.
However, the company just made the browser an optional feature on Windows for EEA users. After the Moment 5 update, Edge and Bing can now be easily uninstalled in EEA, (Settings > Apps > Installed apps click the three dots and select “Uninstall”).
According to Microsoft reports, Edge now collects diagnostic data separately, and you can enable or disable optional diagnostic data sharing from the browser settings.
By default, you see content from Microsoft Start (MSN) when you open the app.
But now you can disable the default news provider or even switch to a new feed provider. Currently, third-party feeds are not available, but Microsoft has published new documentation to help developers create their own feed providers.
Another interesting change is that you won't be automatically signed into your Microsoft account without your consent.
Additionally, Windows will not use Edge to open links for system apps and will respect the default browser. For users outside of Europe, Windows will continue to use Edge to open relevant links.
All of the DMA changes we mentioned above were released with Windows 19045.4123 10H22 build 2 and Windows 22631.3235 11H23 build 2 on February 29, 2024.
