183
New Windows driver blocks software from changing default web browser
(www.bleepingcomputer.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
183 points (93.8% liked)
Privacy
31258 readers
577 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
-
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Apparently this is done to block browsers like opera to change the default browser without user consent, but I think this just makes it more complicated to change the default browser. Maybe they’ll add a pop up if an application tries to change it, allowing users to accept, but I don’t think that’s likely
Honestly, this might be a good thing in that case. I didn't like when my default browser randomly changed
Ideally, this would also stop browsers (ex. Edge) from using dark patterns to try and trick you into changing to them
I'm sure Edge is exempt, and will continue to switch itself to the default browser whenever it feels like it.
The dark pattern is the fact Edge is the default OOTB browser on Windows.
Edge will always magically take over
That's a thing? Wtf?
Malware. Opera was bought by loan scammers so this doesn't surprise me one bit.
Edit: comment from an old reddit post:
This is where Opera is now.
Can edge do it?
I don’t think so, but that doesn’t stop windows from doing it
If edge is able to do it then this is illegal.
Maybe once the DOJ is done tearing apart Apple they will start finding other targets
Are you a lawyer?
You don't need to be a lawyer to say something is illegal. In this instance I'm talking about the antitrust case in the 90s against Microsoft which declared that restricting features of desktop OSes to certain apps to be illegal.
That case went no where for the most part. Microsoft managed to get out of the penalty box somehow