Microsoft has been working hard over the past few months to get people to use its browser more regularly.
And the software giant was not a fan of Windows users, who download Google Chrome instead of using its browser. But the company has now stepped up its campaign to keep people using its built-in browser.
Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 began displaying new prompts when people navigate to the Google Chrome download page, in an effort to discourage people from installing Google’s rival browser.
And when someone tries to download Google Chrome through Microsoft Edge, the software giant reminds them via a popup that their browser is built on the same Chromium technology as Google Chrome, indicating that a new browser is not needed.
It also displays some messages indicating that its browser is more secure than Google Chrome, and that it is the best browser for online shopping.
When you search for “browser” or “download a browser” through the Bing search engine, recommendations for Microsoft Edge appear.
These are not pop-ups or messages that you normally find within a website. It is offered locally by EDGE. Other websites cannot display similar messages.
Google also sometimes sends such pop-ups and messages when you use a search engine or other services. But Google does allow the option to decline. This is not the case with Microsoft Edge.
These messages are different from the messages that Google displays when you launch Edge and use its online services, which appear within web pages when you visit services such as Google Search and Gmail.
The search giant uses these messages to try to encourage users to switch to Google Chrome from the Edge browser.
New messages from Microsoft to keep you away from Google Chrome
Microsoft’s new messages come more than three years after the company first began testing ways to warn Windows 10 users against installing Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. These tests have not been released publicly. But these messages are now starting to appear for Windows users.
The software giant is also making it more difficult to switch default browsers in Windows 11 and forcing people to use Edge through Windows updates.
These latest messages also come on the heels of widespread criticism of the company for including a buy now, pay later tool in its browser, which urges users to use the short-term financing service.
