Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) launched its much-awaited Windows 10 for PC’s a few days back and within a short span of time it is already facing criticism from companies such as Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Mozilla and lets not forget the consumers. The operating system was installed in over 14 million devices within a couple of days of its launch, and the Edge browser got rave reviews.
A lot of users have complained that the OS changes default settings and software preferences. This has raised concerns amongst users because the tech giant not only changed user preferences but has made it increasingly difficult to revert back to the original choice of applications.
Mozilla CEO, Chris Beard, has gone on to voice his concerns in an open letter to Microsoft Head Satya Nadella which states, “...the update experience appears to have been designed to throw away the choice your customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Microsoft wants them to have.”
Mr. Beard further added, “We appreciate that it's still technically possible to preserve people's previous settings and defaults, but the design of the whole upgrade experience and the default settings APIs have been changed to make this less obvious and more difficult. It now takes more than twice the number of mouse clicks, scrolling through content and some technical sophistication for people to reassert the choices they had previously made in earlier versions of Windows. It's confusing, hard to navigate and easy to get lost.”
Microsoft is apparently forcing users to switch over to their new Edge browser, as opposed to sticking to their current preferences which are dominated by Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox browser. This enforcement is unsurprisingly frustrating for users and companies alike. Windows 10 was designed to revolutionize the platform and not restrict users to what Microsoft wants them to use and do.
Windows has supported the decision to make changes to default settings by stating, “We designed Windows 10 to provide a simple upgrade experience for users and a cohesive experience following the upgrade. During the upgrade, consumers have the choice to set defaults, including for web browsing. Following the upgrade, they can easily choose the default browser of their choice. As with all aspects of the product, we have designed Windows 10 as a service; if we learn from user experience that there are ways to make improvements, we will do so.”
Taking nothing away from Edge, it has performed at par with Google’s Chrome and better in some instances however this still does not justify Microsoft's insistence on forcing people to use it. One can revert to their choice of browser by opening for Firefox (if that is their preferred choice) and head to Settings> General>”Make Default”. This will take the user to the Default Apps tab, where he can select Web Browser and then click on Firefox in the following pop-up window. This can be done for Google Chrome in a similar manner.
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