Posted on 12/16/2021 1:40:27 PM PST by PROCON
When Patch Tuesday rolls around, we can usually expect a series of Windows problems to be fixed (and perhaps to see some new ones introduced), as well as new features added. But Microsoft also uses such updates to take things away -- and this is precisely what has happened with the latest updates for Windows 10 and 11.
Microsoft, quite understandably, would like everyone to use its Edge browser, and has taken endless steps to ensure that it stays the default browser on as many computers as possible. With the latest operating system updates -- specifically the KB5008212 and KB5008215 updates -- the company has implemented a block on workarounds used by the likes of EdgeDeflector and Firefox to force links to open in a browser other than Edge.
Browser developers have played something of a game of cat and mouse with Microsoft, finding ways to prevent Edge from hijacking links. In various places within Windows, Microsoft has used the microsoft-edge:// protocol to force links -- such as those in Windows 11 widgets -- to open in Edge.
(Excerpt) Read more at betanews.com ...
Same here. Win7 x64 is working just fine for me. Screw M$.
Get Vivaldi web browser. https://vivaldi.com
It has a built in ad blocker and you can customize the look quite a bit.
The comments at the article do explain that the only time you see Edge is if you do a search in Windows or using a Help file in Windows.
For now..... Microsoft may one day try to repeat what they did with IE back in the old days and make other web browsers not work as well as their browser will.
I also use Brave but use StartPage to search.
Brave is my primary browser. Chrome is my backup. IMHO Edge is garbage.
“...insecurities inherent in the operating system itself...”
I’m not following that...
I’ve read thru pages of the CVE charts you sent in that link, but don’t pretend to understand it.
For explicitly opening the browser and navigating to Fr OS somewhere, you’re correct. I think this is about what the OS views as the default browser that should be opened by a call from within the OS, like when you click on a link in an email or in a PDF document or something like that.
After an hour looking at all the CVE Details in detail, I’m seeing what you’re talking about. So far, so good.
I have another identical computer in the basement — it and my main unit were up-to-date on patches until cut-off date — and everything is saved to external WD “My Book” HDs.
I like the current Firefox 95.0. But it’s just too slow in rendering some web pages.
“Screw M$.”
I was screwed by M$ is my take on it.
I had two perfectly good Win XP machines, that Billy Gatsey locked me out of. Had to make minor hardware change to machines and XP sensed it, wanted re-authorization to occur, servers gone, machines locked up 3 days later, end of story.
No way to get back.
Thanks anyway. Cheers!
Yes. FF is the better browser, of which I use multiple portable installations so can still use Firefox ESR 59, and I think Vivaldi is the best Chromuim-based browser, as long as I can do this:
EASY VIVALDI MULTI-ROW GUIDE
Go into vivaldi://experiments/ and enable “Allow for using CSS modifications”
Use Windows Explorer to create your alternative custom folder.
Go into Vivaldi Settings/Appearance, under “Custom UI Modifications”, and select the alternative custom folder. This allows your customizations to survive updates, at least for now.
In that custom folder (in Windows Explorer) create a text file and rename it “custom.css”. It can’t have any spaces in the name.
In the new .css file copy and paste all the info from nomadic’s Vivaldi forum post here on page 6 (or later if someone updates it?) [https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/442801]. Notice that there is more there than you first see (scroll bar)!
Save (as unicode in Notepad++, it said I would lose info if I didn’t use unicode), and restart Vivaldi.
I will monitor this thread for a few days if anyone wants to help me write this better (maybe I edit it?). But everyone feel free to write/re-write this going forward! Obviously I just rewrote what smarter people here already said. Thanks again, team! - https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/445548
Edit, that should have referenced https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.9.0esr/win64/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2052.9.0esr.exe
Easiest work around is don’t hot click links in stuff. Copy and paste. That’s all this is doing is changing what happens if you click on a link in email or a document. Which honestly how often do you do that? So, don’t worry about it.
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