Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2018 Update To Harass Users To Choose Edge Over Chrome

When Microsoft rolls out its big update for Windows 10 in October, there will be a new and annoying popup for users who try and install Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox on their machines. Word comes from beta testers of the update report the screenshot below pops up if you try and install a competing browser on your PC. The popup notes that users already have Edge as part of Windows 10, and claims that it is the safer and faster browser.

While the popup tries to talk users out of installing the alternative browsers, it will still allow you to install the other browsers if you click the “Install Anyway” button. There is a button that allows users to open the Edge browser instead of installing Firefox or Chrome. The issue that Google and Firefox may take with this warning is that the wording insinuates that the other two browsers are less safe than Edge.

@MicrosoftEdge What kind of slimy marketing cesspool crap is this Microsoft? I proceed to launch the Firefox installer and Windows 10 pops this up? If I wanted to use your browser, I would. pic.twitter.com/f7jk9sGvYA

— Sean Hoffman (@SeanKHoffman) September 11, 2018

Prompts of that sort can be turned off by using the link under the buttons on the popup. This is an escalation in the war between Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. However, there are similar prompts that are shown to users not on Edge already. Considering the popularity of Chrome and Firefox, Microsoft’s tact to shame users into using Edge isn’t going to be well received.

Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to use Edge and Bing search so badly, that they offered to pay customers to use them in 2016. Years later, Microsoft still lacks the market reach that it wants. Beta testers are likely to be vocal about this in your face marketing for Edge and only time will tell if it ends up in the final version.