Microsoft to Force Web Links Shared in Teams to Open with Microsoft Edge

dezmd@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1064 points –

Just got this right before midnight in my MS Admin app alerts. If you dont configure the policy, in September it defaults to opening web links in Edge regardless of OS default browser setting.

I woke up this morning to One Drive doing its usual thing being HOT GARBAGE, now I'm going to bed with Teams becoming HOT GARBAGE.

Full Excerpt:

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Web links from Microsoft Teams chats to open in Microsoft Edge; Teams chat will open side-by-side with link

MC669480

Plan for change

Published date: August 21, 2023

Affected services

Microsoft Teams

Tag

MAJOR UPDATEADMIN IMPACTNEW FEATUREUSER IMPACT

The Microsoft Teams desktop app for Windows will open web links from Teams chats in Microsoft Edge to enable a new web and chat side-by-side experience.

By opening web links in Edge, users will be able to see those links side-by-side with their Teams chats—web links will open as new browser tabs and the Teams chats will open next to them in the Edge sidebar. This new, single-view Teams experience in Edge is designed to minimize switching between windows and to help users stay in the flow of work while referencing web links.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 126334.

This change to use Edge to open web links from Teams chats follows a similar, previously announced change in the Outlook for Windows app. Customers impacted by this change in Outlook were notified via MC541626, MC545904, or MC548092.

Admin controls are available as detailed below.

Read more about how we’re optimizing the experience between Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Edge:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/02/16/discover-new-ways-to-multitask-with-microsoft-365-and-edge/

What's New in Teams | Microsoft Inspire 2023 Notes:

This change does not affect a device’s default browser setting in Windows.

This only affects commercial users signed into Teams with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) accounts.

The policy described in the following section configures which browser is used to open web links for both Teams (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email), or, if you did not receive an Outlook for Windows app Message center notification, this policy will only apply to Teams (chat).

When will this affect your organization:

Timing:

Microsoft Teams desktop app for Windows: This change will start rolling out late September.

Outlook for Windows: Roll out in progress. If this change affects your users, you will have received either MC541626, MC545904, or MC548092, and can refer to them for specific timing.

Note: Depending on your Outlook for Windows update channel, you may experience the change in Teams first. Action:

Use the Choose which browser opens web links policy to configure which browser will be used to open web links and to set whether users will be able to make changes to which browser opens web links in both the Teams desktop app for Windows (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email).

If you did not receive a message center notification for the Outlook for Windows app (email), then the setting only applies to Teams (chat).

If you did receive a message center notification for the Outlook for Windows app (email), then the setting applies to both Teams (chat) and Outlook for Windows app (email). You will not be able to manage each app individually using this policy. If you’ve previously configured this policy for the Outlook for Windows app and wish to maintain that configuration, no action is required.

Note: There are no Microsoft 365 subscription restrictions in using this policy to configure which browser opens web links in Teams.

Use of the policy to manage the change in the Outlook for Windows app depends on your Microsoft 365 subscription. If you received the Outlook for Windows app Message center notification, please refer to MC541626, MC545904, or MC548092 for details on whether configuring this policy will apply.

If you have not configured the policy, or wish to change it, find the details below. How this will affect your organization:

Links from Teams chats will open based on the browser configuration in the Choose which browser opens web links policy. If no configuration is selected using the Choose which browser opens web links policy, web links from Teams chats will open in Microsoft Edge.

Only links set to open via a web browser are affected. Links that are set to open in a client app or within Teams itself will continue to do so. User experiences will vary by policy configuration; please see the next section.

You can manage this experience at any time. What you need to do to prepare:

If you’ve previously configured this policy for the Outlook for Windows app and wish to maintain that configuration, no action is required.

Use the Choose which browser opens web links policy to configure which default browser will be used to open web links and to set whether users will be able to manage which browser opens web links in both Teams (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email). You will not be able to manage each app individually using this policy.

The Choose which browser opens web links policy is available using the Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 (formerly the Office Cloud Policy Service) or as part of the Administrative Templates for Microsoft 365 Apps.

Enabled: Configures which browser opens web links from the Teams desktop app for Windows (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email):

Microsoft Edge

Web links will open side-by-side with users’ chat or email in Edge.

Default browser

Users will not be able to change this from the respective apps’ settings menus.

Disabled/Unconfigured: Web links from the Teams desktop app for Windows (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email) will open in Microsoft Edge.

Web links will open side-by-side with users’ chat or email in Edge.

Users can manage the browser change: Via the in-product notifications explaining the side-by-side experience.

At any time via the Teams settings menu: Settings > Files and links > Link open preferences

Note: If you want to manage this change for your entire organization so that Teams only opens web links using the device’s system default browser, you will need to configure the policy to Enabled and select Default browser.

Additional Information

Read more about how we’re optimizing the experience between Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Edge with this feature in our blog: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/02/16/discover-new-ways-to-multitask-with-microsoft-365-and-edge/

We always value feedback and questions from our customers. Please feel free to submit either feedback or questions via Message Center.

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A browser so good they have to force their captive audience to use it.

It's like the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft 22 years ago. They are still trying to push their browser.

When you visit the Chrome website in edge, a pop up in the top right tells you to use edge instead. Imagine going to sign up for a new ISP and your current one injecting a popup telling you they’re better. I have no idea how MS are getting away with it

I know you can get chrome or fox by other means, but I always use Edge to download alternative browsers.

I enjoy seeing Microsoft grovel.

It's not the same as 22 years ago. What is the difference? Well, Microsoft tricks you into making Edge your default browser with every bigger update.

Windows 10: "oh uuuuh (sweats profusely) hi user-senpai. I made this cute browser, it's called edge and you would make me so happy if you used it."

Me: (looks for "No" button", sighs and then clicks "Later" button on the bottom left)

Windows 10: "oh noooo (sobs uncontrollably) can you at least import your bookmarks and stuff into edge"

Me: (clicks whatever button because that window too lacks a clear "No" button)

Windows 10: "Yaaaay! Thank you user-senpaaaaai! I promise that one day you'll have yes to Edge! I will make it the greatest browser ever!"

I'm in the process to migrate to Void Linux because of this and other issues.

EDIT: I got 3 downvotes so far and i want to say... i see you. I got the hint. The text lacks a Yandere vibe that Microsoft has going on 😄.

Jumped to Kubuntu around the time Win 10 came out and haven't looked back. Gaming on Linux has come quite far too :)

I do really like KDE. It's the first thing i install on my machines after Void. I am looking for some inspiration to really rice out KDE.

Why Void Linux specifically?

Probably that Microsoft Windows in its current form makes you want to crawl into a void.

Recommendation by my gf mostly. But i can see where she comes from. The OS is very lean and runit is easy to deal with.

A disadvantage i see though is the lack of Calamares installer and XBPS. The void-installer isn't that intuitive, however it's not as tough as installing Arch manually (SomeOrdinaryGamers made a fun video about it). XBPS isn't as intuitive as APT either but apparently it's much more solid and has less potential to break the Void install. Some packages are also not available in the void repos because they are either merged into other packages for simplicity or they are simply not available. In the latter case i recommend using flatpak.

Another caveat is that while Void has an established userbase, there are so much more resources for Ubuntu and other distros. So Void isn't exactly good for a computer novice like my mom. Void has a good website with resources for common use-cases, so you're not left to your own devices entirely.

Once you're done setting up Void, you have a very snappy system. It boots fast and uses little resources. It uses 800 megabytes of RAM on my GPD Win 2, 200 of which think are from KDE. It is lean! It is so lean and it boots fast! It has a properly working standby mode which is not a given anymore these days! I can open up my GPD and it powers up reliably! Back on Windows ifound myself mashing the power button!

I installed it on another laptop, specifically a Sony VAIO Flip 15. I wanted to test it first but the VAIO didn't like booting twice from an external drive. HOLY CRAP, BLUETOOTH IS WORKING AGAIN! I KNEW WINDOWS BROKE BLUETOOTH! FUCK THEIR "muh pci powerup failed" EXCUSE! Although i had to replace the Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 with my Intel Wireless AC-7260 because Atheros cards are iffy on Linux in general. I had the Intel one laying around because i was trying to ix the Bluetooth issue caused by a Windows Update.

And Void can be loud! Both of my systems i installed Void on are louder now! Holy crap! Not sure whether it's specifically because of Void but damn! I love an OS that makes the very core stuff that i don't usually think about work better! Except for some WiFi slowdown on my Win 2 but a config tweak later it's gone. And the Atheros thing.

I initially thought Windows gaming on Linux was still not good, however it turned out that a few games i have don't like being just plonked on a system without a proper install. There is a caveat remaining but that isn't exclusive to Void and that is some weirdness when it comes to old physical Windows games. Multi-CD games aren't properly supported and some CDs aren't working too well for some reason. For example CD 2 of SimCity 4 isn't read correctly.

Remind me - I have a nice ZFS Encrypted Void install guide. In hospital at the moment, I'll try dig it up.

If you didn't like it, you shouldn't have let your laptop walk around dressed so provocatively

The thing is, it's actually decent. I don't know why they have to keep doing this. I used Edge as the main browser on my Surface Go to get a bit more battery life, and it's fine as my second browser; feels like someone is desperately trying to meet their KPIs to keep on pulling shit like this. Parts of the browser are getting worse too, that sidebar is a complete mess at default.

You are probably right, but the more they keeping pushing me to use Edge, the more I don’t want to use it. My experience of it is mostly negative, as a hindrance that gets in my way with its constant nagging, and having to disable it.

Personally, I don't care how good it is, I refuse to use a Chromium-based browser and insist on supporting its only serious competitor: Firefox.

This is pretty much me. I've never spent any significant amount of time with edge. I don't really see the point in trying multiple chromium-based browsers.

The average person understandably doesn't care about which rendering engine is being used behind the scene. They see the branding, the UI, and the features.

Hense Chromium's near total dominance outside of the Mac world.

That's one of my main problems with Microsoft at this point. They can make improvements to the underlying technologies (WSL, better security sandboxing, FDE by default on supported hardware, etc) and develop actually decent software (Edge) but then they keep doing things to piss off the users like forced online account logins, the mess they made of the default app selection going from 10 to 11, pre-installed junk, and now this. They just need to get out of their own way and focus on making decent products: ones people want to use, instead of ones they're coerced to use.

Edge was my main browser until about six months ago, then they pushed that obnoxious UI change that added a load of buttons to my toolbar that I can't move or disable, and that irritating sidebar that jumps up whenever it can even when the button is disabled, and I went back to Firefox again.

That's part of the annoyance I was mentioning; but you can turn it off. I just wish it wasn't so obnoxious by default.

On the partner portal tech side of things they force a UI change roughly every 6 months, then have a forced “See what’s new!!” Pop up that WONT GO AWAY every time you log in no matter how many times you click through its bubble chase game across the screen so you can just get to fucking work.

Then for some reason the partner portal oauth or whatever cookies expire wayyyy before the office.com user cookies. So you’ll go to access the portal and be told it’s expired, only to have to close the window and click the partner button again. Not even having to actually reauthenticate.

Why do some preview handlers in file explorer lock the file? Why user logon not more verbose? Or able to be verbose on selected problem machines? Why does Windows driver installer uninstall AMD adrenaline sometimes when it feels like turning itself back on? In place upgrades are a recovery option if the machine is still working, but why not if the machine isn’t booting and as a full recovery option with user and application data intact and only reinstalling OS files like Linux and MacOS? Why are all the built-in troubleshooters so fucking useless, especially with SaRA exists? Printer server on Windows server… WTF? Windows app troubleshooting, especially built in apps, the repair options in settings don’t work 90% of the time. You want people to use your storefront? Make it make sense! Quit. Changing. The. Fucking. Names. Of. Shit. You. Fucks. AzureAD was fine. Entra? Who fucking cares. Does some guy get paid to come up with names there? You want me to come smear shit on the walls and call it art? I’m sure I can convince some egghead of that if this is how you work.

I better stop before I have an aneurysm. I hate Microsoft.

If you think that them forcing a browser on you, or forced telemetry, or web-based logons are bad just wait until they enforce desktop in the cloud and remove any option to install Windows locally. Then you'll truly have no control over what you do, what you install, you'll be completely monitored, permenantly. There's a reason workers (with some degree of integrity) are leaving MS as it's crap like this thats on their roadmap.

It used to be good, before it became the default platform for their AIbing monstrosity... Now it's just arse. Why would I want web pages read to me??

Albing? But that sidebar really is a monstrosity at default, gotta disable like half of the items there to make it useful, and hide it on launch so it's not obnoxious.

I was going to write bAIing but it made no sense. BingAI is probably a lot more coherent, in hindsight

theres some sites that dont work with how i have my browser setup in chrome, at least i think thats what is the problem, but they work fine in edge. im not gonna use it for my main browser, microsoft already gets too much data from us all, but ill use it when chrome messes up.

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Microsoft got screwed by antitrust officials for only putting it's browsers in new windows installs 20 years ago. Antitrust enforcement is a fucking joke in this country now.

Ironically, the larger market share of macOS (compared to back then), mobile platforms, and the fact that Chrome is now the #1 browser means there's a much weaker case for there being a monopoly now.

"Got screwed" is an over-exaggeration. They lost. Eventually. Only after having crushed Netscape's hopes and dreams. And the settlement was pitiful.

IE was still king after the antitrust lawsuit. It took decades to de-throne it.

This shit makes me want to quit IT. Technology is no longer helping humans. Technology is controlled by capitalist cunts.

Same. Streaming services reinvented cable. The open web is increasingly hidden behind paywalls. Instead of having the sum of all human knowledge at your fingertips, you have 5 billion tiny creators begging you to sign up for their goat-fat candle-making course on udacity. You can't look in any direction without advertisers stabbing you in the eyes and claiming that it's their god-given right to scream their snake-oil sales pitch directly into your brain; and if you install an ad blocker you're the one stealing food out of content creators mouths, not the ~5 people who control 50 % of the total wealth of humanity...

I'm with you. I'm so completely and utterly over working in IT. The industry used to be full of companies founded by people who loved tech, and were staffed by kids who grew up on Lego and Logo. Today these same businesses are owned by investors who don't know the first thing about technology, and staffed by grown up kids who were told by their guidance counselor that IT was a high paying field. Nobody knows their ass from a hole in the ground anymore, and getting anyone remotely competent on the phone is like pulling teeth. If I could bail on this industry tomorrow and build picnic tables I'd never look back.

I’m out of software the first chance I get. I hate it. Tech is no longer fun and inventive, it’s exploitative and designed to milk the most money out of every user.

I don’t even particularly care about the capitalist part. I just find that the new things are no longer fun, but terrifying and causing anxiety about the future. I used to love keeping up with the newest stuff, but I already feel like a Luddite after the last few years

I joined an IT career out of excitement for technology and gaming, but most that I see about both those industries makes me lose hope for the future.

Don't quit IT. Combine your abilities with other IT people and make new things that create competition.

At my org, edge for all outlook links rolled out last week. Not only does it not let you use your default browser, half of the screen is taken up with a popup asking to make edge your default every time!

This feels like a serious abuse of market position. This should definitely result in legal action

another wet noodle over the wrist is sure change their behaviour

Let's fine them 0.000001% of the profits they generate from predation. That'll learn em!

Shit I don't even have to use Windows but let me know where to sign up

There's a setting in outlook options, but it's buried pretty deep.

Open Links with under advanced something

I'm in tech support, I've had several users hit by this in office programs as opening links via plugins to sites they need to be logged into would suddenly open a different browser which they weren't logged into. None of them realized what was going on. That alone should cause for a lawsuit, since they're changing defaults for reasons entirely unrelated to eg. preventing security risks.

Everyone hates this new feature at work. Now we have to close the extra side-chat bar in edge every time we click a link in Teams. This kind of feature will drive people to share links using any other program.

I swear... MS program managers are some kind of alien that don't understand user experience at all

This can be set in Apps Admin Center by your Org Admins.

MS definitely didn’t get in trouble for this in the past and this time it’s going to work out

Well yeah they've had 20 years to pad courts with corporate-sympathetic judges and neuter any other forms of government oversight. Course it'll work out this time.

The lesson Microsoft learned from the antitrust trials may be to invest more in lobbying.

I like to shit on Microsoft as much as the next guy, but it is really weird what they got fined for compared to what Google and Apple are doing now. Ideally they should all be forced to stop.

Microsoft was the original tech-bro poster child. They grew up and became a household name in a much different economic and regulatory environment in the 80s and 90s that gave more of a shit about antitrust stuff.

Apple and Google had a much more favorable, and more lax, environment in the post-Bush era during their big growth years in the late 2000's/early 2010's. By the time they got around to doing the same shit Microsoft did, antitrust was already dead.

Back then the anti-trust laws were actually somewhat enforced. Nowadays, not so much.

They won't. Those lawsuits took years, and MS have been practicing the same shady business model for years since. It only got worse. Probably since the EU (and other governing bodies) are busy fighting Google, Apple and Facebook.

I don't have Microsoft edge on my Linux system. :)

Teams on Linux is already broken af, we won't even notice we can't open links

I believe I read somewhere that they have abandoned the desktop app on Linux. Yep:

!In September 2022, Microsoft announced that they'd be retiring their Linux Teams client in December 2022 in favour of a new “Progressive Web Application” (PWA) version of Teams.!<

Same on Windows in my experience 😁

No I'm OK with it, whatever. It's worth it big time to not run windows. :)

Lucky for you, teams will install edge for you on Linux!

What if I tell you, that Teams has edge integrated, since it is basically a browser with custom UI

As long as the web client works, I'll use teams from inside Firefox thank you very much.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to make or answer calls in Teams on Firefox. It only works for booked meetings. So for work stuff, I've got to use Edge even on my own home desktop. Honestly, I like it more than I did Chrome, but if I get to choose, it's Firefox all the way.

Wait, Teams opened in Edge lets you make and answer calls? What if you change your User Agent String in Firefox to Edge (as I do for using Bing Chat)?

For Bing, I have a container (using Firefox Multi-Account Containers extension) and I have the User Agent of that container set to Microsoft Edge (using User Agent Switcher extension). Bing thinks I’m on Edge and lets me do everything there my browser is, supposedly, incapable of doing, like typing to an AI model.

I don’t use teams, someone who does please test this.

Yep it's a terribly engineered pile of shit built on random scraps of other stuff. That's why it has problems all the time.

You can find it on flathub :)

Yes, but it works poorly. It doesn't even have sync (!).

Didn't this very same issue result in MS being called a monopoly all those years ago. And now they are right back at it again.

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Fucking Microsoft, they could right now be the beacon of the Internet right now, had they chosen Firefox as the base of their browser.

I'd actually be using it, as a counter to Chrome.

But no, of course they had to go with chromium and just become another dicksucker.

Even if they used Firefox or any other browser as a base I wouldn't use it, it started as a decent browser but they just had to stuff it with cruft, they even took things they were offering as an extension and baked it in instead of letting people choose what they want to install on their PC.

of course they had to go with chromium and just become another dicksucker.

Interesting take to put Google higher on the list of fuckery corps than Microsoft, but what goes around comes around in different ways. I'd make a guess it's more likely they're just doing what they do, going full embrace and extend on chromium to dilute Chrome's dominance. Unfortunately they determined that means going full Internet Explorer with their integration into the OS (which they get to play technicality over with antitrust concerns since their 'apps' are what default it rather than an underlying OS 'default' that this effectively deprecates).

Cheers.

Didn't Microsoft lose a large anti trust court case about this shit for internet explorer? So we're just going the same route again because fuck the law and fuck our customers?

In any case, I am forced to use teams and since I run Linux I use it in chrome as the teams executable is just non workable.

Besides that, who in their right mond used teams? It's a bit of a rhetorical question, my org uses it (for the moment, still) and it is godawful.

Teams on browsers is a fucking joke. Want gasp two tabs open with chats? Oh nononononon, Can't have that! We'll helpfully display an all page hiding modal asking you "are you still here?" on one of these tabs (almost always, but in typical Microsoft fashion, not always always) and if you click "I'm back" we'll helpfully reload that page. Since many pages don't have their unique URL, as they should because that is how the internet works, the reload just kicks you out of what you were doing... Were you in an important meeting? Well now you're not anymore with mo way to get back unless maybe your boss tries to add you back himself.

Camera randomly just disappears, when you go into a preplanned call sometimes half the people end up in different chats, ahw whatever. I have a long, LONG list of other bugs and not enough energy to write it all down again

People should NOT use teams and should NOT use any Microsoft software, it's all shit. I use Linux for servers and its all fast and easy. i use Linux for desktop and I never have to deal with any of the Microsoft shit

They lost something similar. But the US is different now. We don't hold companies accountable anymore. Look at the food industry, look at Facebook, Google, etc.

Didn't Microsoft lose a large anti trust court case about this shit for internet explorer?

Yes and no.

MS made Internet explorer uninstallable and made it even if you could install Netscape you couldn't set it as the default app. Forcing teams to open internet explorer edge is more in line with iPhones and Android. Both phone OSs will let you install different browsers, but opening links from most 1st party apps opens safari or chrome with no real way to change it. It's one of the worst things about phones and now MS is trying to move Windows that direction.

It's going to get worse. Once corporations start to adopt edge MS will move to make browser office the only office. Clicking a .doc in edge will redirect to browser word 365. Saving already defaults to the cloud, soon we'll have "virtual downloads" that save your download to your cloud and you can only meaningfully interact with it via edge.

We need more legislation and regulations allowing software choice for all platforms. We've never been allowed to own software, now we can't even buy a perpetual license. Soon we won't be allowed to have a copy of software saved on our devices, and files made by that software won't be allowed on our computers either.

Do you know what's funny though?

My company for the moment still uses teams. I'll get that fixed soon. But while using teams, teams runs in chrome on my Linux box. That still works because good luck fucking around with that in Linux Ms... So this is not a technical requirement, it's a corporate and marketing requirement.

Fuck Microsoft, switch to Linux

Did you try to use the Progressive Web App (PWA) version of Teams instead? It is not perfect either, but I find it more useful that way than running it somewhere in a browser's tab.

Tried the Linux app. It's about as stable as a methhead junkie and it was simply unusable. The browser version is damn near unusable as well but at least I manage to sometimes use it, sometimes answer a call etc.. it's hilariously bad but at least it starts.

Seriously Microsoft, what is it with MS web pages not understanding that people might shudder open up two tabs? I open a second tab for teams and all hell breaks lose.

This is something indonwith all types of web pages without problem. Only Mickeysoft teams fucks it up just like all web pages on Microsoft.

how much more IT guys want to be abused before switching to linux in companies, it's not like they use something windows exclusive, only if it's the insecurities

Just as soon as Linux sales people wine and dine the CTO better than the Microsoft ones. Usually it's not IT people. If it was up to IT in my experience, Jan from Accounting would be using a tiling VM on Linux.

if the jan com accounting is using only the browser or a standalone app to do the work, the OS do'nt matter, except if it is to intall other things, but it's the company computer why are they intalling other things

Until Google finishes ramming Web Integrity Framework into Chrome, and then Jan can't use her browser from Linux anymore because QuickBooks took a bunch of money from Microsoft to lock their website to Windows only. The Internet is fucked by corpo greed.

The BankID-app in Sweden only supports Windows and Mac, so if you need the improved security with cable you are locked.

So glad I don't have to use Windows at work

I get to use a Mac for work. But they still require me to use Chrome, so...

Mac is the same. Linux is the only non bloated OS

Macs don't force you to use a specific browser. That was my point. This isn't really about bloatware.

I’ve been using Macs for work since the early 2000s and they don’t add bloat. If you consider apps like Pages and Numbers to be bloat, you can drag them straight into the trash and they go away.

Windows is a whole other story. Like who the absolute fuck thought it was a good idea to have ads in the OS?

In my case won't matter company has deplyed Edge on all company Mac's for better integration apparently. (͡•_ ͡• )

For the last X number of years, I've listened to people proclaim how Microsoft has changed, they're not the '90s Microsoft anymore. They make things open source! They're putting Linux in Windows now instead of trying to murder Linux! They're not doing Internet Explorer things anymore! You old Slashdot readers are stuck in the past!

'90s Microsoft sends their regards.

Just consider that by using Ubuntu inside Windows, they're trying to make you not install Linux on hardware itself.

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will open web links from Teams chats in Microsoft Edge to enable a new web and chat side-by-side experience.

I am so sick and tired of this fluffy language every tech company uses these days. "New experience" this, "New experience" that, the only new experience I want is the experience of kicking a shoe up Nadella's ass.

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Curious but what if I remove Edge from the machine?

Edge is so invasive now that people have developed tools to remove it, for example https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil. And you still have to run them after any update that ends up reinstalling Edge! It's like removing malware, but it's even worse because this gets reinstalled by updates from the same legitimate authority that provides your security updates. This recently got me so mad that I decided to quit the games that don't run on Linux and replace Windows with Linux on my gaming PC.

It's a shame I can't avoid Microsoft at work as well.

Removing internet explorer caused a whole lot of issues back in the days. I'd wager some programs would still depend on Edge nowadays and ignore your default browser.

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I used Edge during beta and upon release. It's a decent browser. But Microsoft started adding their bloat to it and now just throws it in my face every chance they get. I no longer use Edge as a result.

Fuck Teams. It's the shittiest experience out of all the options. Discord is better, that's how bad it is.

Be glad you didn't use Skyoe for business. One of the shiitest experiences of my career. Comparitively teams is a godsend.

They're the same thing more or less. "Skype for Business" was really just a renaming of Microsoft Lync which was just the on prem version of MS Teams. With the launch of Office 365 they axed MS Lync in favor of a SaaS version which is what MS Teams is. Ultimately all of Microsofts IM clients suck, even the ones they buy like how they screwed up Skype after buying it. Two things you never use from Microsoft, their web browsers, and their chat services.

Every iteration of Microsoft IM clients has gotten so close to being usable to have some executive mess it up with bloat and then abandon it for something new that is missing even basic features and start the cycle all over again.

Got affected by this, and the Edge literally showed a notification bar on how to disable this (as a user). So, slightly annoying but not too big of an issue as users can opt out right away.

Good luck trying to open it on Edge when it's blocked from installing via policy

I would be so frustrated working for a company like Microsoft when forced to write software “features” like this.

The business of M$ just fucking sucks

Such low, sad tactics. I've just converted an old MacBook to Linux. It'll be good to not have to deal with these shenanigans.

Even more, Debian support powerpc and others architectures, can you imagine apple and Microsoft to always support x86, as Microsoft dropped x86_32 and apple dropped powerpc and now x86

But why is this the same people that brought us the windows terminal, azure, vscode and improvements to python? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Because that was just to weaken the arguments of SWE asking their company to allow Linux laptops.

As a wise man once said: Developers! Developers! Developers!

Microsoft will appeal to developers, because those are techy enough to realistically leave their platform and because developers supply the value to their platform. Normal users can be milked, though.

"I can't do X in blackboard"

"Are you using edge?"

"Yes"

"Install Firefox and use that, it will fix the problem"

Edge just doesn't work well with some sites; those of us without admin powers are going to have a very rough time trying to work around this.

Just gonna drop this here https://github.com/rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect

Sadly my workplace recently standardised on Edge with most users being barred from using anything else. So this is just gonna be seen as cool innovation there, most likely. Probably the same in any MS-based business.

I do prefer Edge at my work and same feature but for Outlook feels very weird and unintuitive and I can not see any use for having Outlook on the browser sidebar when I open link from desktop Outlook. Disabled that feature after it started to annoy me too much.

MS being MS. The way they have been advertising Edge and pushing users to use edge have been crazy. They literally made it impossible to change default browsers in Windows 11 for a while and made it default when start/search is used to open links. They will keep re-installing Edge even if you remove it.

I'm still grateful that my W10 LTSC has been rocking solid for 2 years now. Less crapware.

Used LTSC, eventually ended on linux, its quite usable now :)

IMO Linux is good if you are okay with things breaking and stuff not working (eg working with doc, xls file and more stuff)

I assume you will be excited for W11 LTSC, I am doubtful it will be less bloated though.

Honestly I really don't care abt w11 LTSC as this one (10LTSC) should receive updates till 2030 (afaik).

Till that time, Linux Desktop will be in a much better place than it is now.

The only reason I would ever want to switch over to W11 LTSC would be if I buy a newer PC. The W11 LTSC is supposed to launch next year, so let's how how it goes.

That's fair enough, I'm running endeavour os, my longest time of linux install on a gaming rig - that says something!

Thanks for the heads up. Just disabled it across our whole organisation :D (assuming Microsoft honours the policy)

My goodness this is dumb. I thought that while Apple was not above stuff like this, at least MS doesn’t stoop to this level. I guess was wrong.

That's what happens to people using Windows and other Microsoft products.

Like you have a choice in 98% of workplaces.

That is a problem of echo chambers. Kids should be taught non-Windows things in school. Linux, LibreOffice. It would be cheaper for schools, and would incentive for the work places to think about the status quo.

Exactly. They should be learning a variety of different operating systems and apps. However, that implies that teachers are familiar with the tech.

At least in Sweden tech, it's fine to use Linux it seems. I haven't been blocked from it. But the company may not have official support for it, so you have to know how to set up vpn etc.

It's all habitual. Companies employees normally don't require windows for anything they do. I run outlook in the web browser, same with teams... Etc.

I have the option to use MacOS or Linux at mine, but the constant chirping from the Windows lifers whenever I have an issue would drive me mad.

"iS iT bEcAuSe YoU'rE nOt On WiNdOwS???"

It's as if applications suddenly detonate whenever they touch anything else.

Outlook defaults to it as well I believe, but you can change it to open with the default browser in your apps settings.

Oh what a surprise! You know what's funny, is one time i compiled an app with pyinstaller but used the encrypted flag and some ip address from WA and microsoft were loading my executable all the time.... Not just visiting the download site, but running the actual EXE in some kind of automatic way I assume.

Sounds like Microsoft Defender/other AV sandbox running it to check for malware, Ive seen it happen in the wild in a similar fashion. A client was running software with phone home licensing and the vendor auto disabled the license after AV sandbox runs touched their license server from the sandbox IPs. I think Quark also had that issue for another ckient, but that was almost a decade ago.

If yiu willingly use Teams you deserve this.

Any reason to not being using edge? Better performance than the other two, with more features

With every update Edge gets more and more useless features to sell their own services. Edge is an advertising platform for MS more than anything else.

Firefox on the other hand.. I just install and be done with it.

  1. Microsoft isn't a good steward with my data.
  2. Microsoft has historically been really bad for locking in a subscriber base by adding proprietary features.
  3. Ignoring the choice for opening web pages in a default browser is the skeeziest of skeezy.

I, for one, welcome this. I have edge for everything work-logging related and Firefox for other sfw stuff (search for info for my work and occasional yt/reddit).

This will make it a bit easier, but I guess I'm a special case.

Edit: just to be clear, I'm not happy it's mandated, but it just happens to do something I will use in my windows work machine. I don't use teams, edge or windows 11 otherwise

Teams should open links in the default browser, that's why windows give you the option to set one. If that's Edge for you, great. But others shouldn't have to suffer under MS' shitty decision making process.

Well, that's the feedback for Microsoft. Me being ok for my work flow doesn't change anything for you. If you don't like what MS does, fight them by not using them. I'm already doing my part, I don't use MS products unless I'm paid to do so.

It seems so :)

I think Edge isnt all that bad. But for most its just this whole idea of beeing forced to use it, i think :)

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