Posted on 03/20/2018 2:33:47 PM PDT by dayglored
Grab some popcorn: Redmond has asked for feedback
Microsoft’s about to test a new feature of Windows 10 that will force users to employ its Edge browser under some circumstances.
Revealed in the announcement of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17623 for Skip Ahead, the change means “we will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge”.
Microsoft’s justification for the change is that Edge is the best, most secure browser on Windows 10.
But the change will reportedly override users’ preference for default browser.
While that’s naughty in lots of ways and makes Microsoft’s efforts to boost its browser’s market share pretty lame, this change won’t have a massive effect because Windows Mail isn’t a big deal. A firm named Litmus tracks email client use and in its analysis of the email market in 2017 found Outlook has six per cent of the email client market, Outlook.com has four per cent and Windows Live Mail had one per cent market share. Windows Mail didn't get a mention. That means it is behind even Yahoo! mail’s two per cent market share not in the same postcode as the 28 per cent share for the iPhone’s email client, 26 per cent for Gmail, and even the five per cent market share for Samsung’s mail client.
And of course the change also applies to a Preview, meaning there’s a decent chance this “feature” won’t ever make it into a proper version of Windows 10.
Microsoft’s post is also peppered with calls for feedback: The Register imagines few comments Redmond receives will be positive. ®
“Who on earth clicks on links embedded in email?”
the people who own PCs that are LOADED with nearly unfathomable amounts of malware...
LOL!
What?? Thunderbird doesn’t even make 1%?? I’m highly suspicious.
Emails on my iPhone open in Safari, I use Firefox otherwise.
Yeah, I noticed that and wondered too. Being a Thunderbird user myself... I find this survey's lack of TBird... troubling.
the answers to all of your questions are “yes”.
I believe it was the EU that brought and won the lawsuit, forcing MS to include the ability in its OSes to remove IE entirely.
The originator of Classic Shell has discontinued updates. He hopes someone else will step up and take it over. [Some Firefox extensions have been saved that way — other programmers taking over to continue updating them.]
I have not heard/read whether some other programmer will take up Classic Shell. Apparently, MS is removing some of the coding that allows 3rd party software like Classic Shell to work.
LOL. I'd say a good 20-30% of the people whose email preference I know (admittedly probably a non-representative sample) use TBird.
As much as Apple has ticked off me and my wife, Microsoft keeps reminding me of what a sleazy company it is.
The Gates legacy lives on and on.
That sounds low. It's pretty much the standard for enterprises.
Upgrade to Brave.
And my very old Seamonkey has features that are hard to find these days.
Actually, I’ve come to depend on MS Live Mail and Outlook more than I do g-mail and yahoo mail. with the MS e-mail clients, I’ve noticed that they’re not invading my privacy by “reading” through my e-mails. With Yahoo mail and g-mail, I constantly get advertising based on what my e-mail content is. I stopped using g-mail altogether and only use Yahoo mail for what I consider useless e-mail services. Everything of value comes through Live mail or Outlook.
BTW, I still used Firefox more than Edge, but if I’m kicked to the Edge browser from an MS link, I don’t think I’d have a problem with it, since I thing that they actually have the better and faster browser, and the most secure. But, that’s just me; your experiences may vary.
Windows 10 FORCED me to go to Linux. Now I’m free.
Edge has never even worked for me, it just spins continuously.
From my perspective, Microsoft updates are nasty viruses.
I had issues with the lack of *sufficient* scripting control with Brave when I tried it last year. Also, annoyed I can't tweak it like with Firefox (pre-Quantum) and Opera.
I like Opera a lot, but since it is now owned by a Chinese company I don't use it to log into any financial or other critical accounts.
Windows 10 FORCED me to go to Linux. Now I’m free.
Once I can no longer get security updates for my Win7Pro PC and laptop, I'll likely head in that direction.
We have lots of users who use Remote Desktop. When using Edge it fails miserably, Internet Explorer works perfectly. They can’t even make their products play well with each other. Go figure.
Yeah, I too found that strange. Although, I did stop using Thunderbird about 11 years ago.
They also show Samsung Email at 5% and Android Email at 3%. I have a Samsung Android phone, but I use Gmail.
Clearly, their numbers reflect that more and more people are doing their email on phones and tablets.
BTW, I have a typo in my post above: It should read "from 934 million email opens."
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