If you have been using Windows 10, you may be familiar with Microsoft’s ways of stopping you from changing the default browser to Google Chrome. That is because Microsoft just does not like people using the Chrome browser on its operating system, even more now, because the Edge browser more or less uses the same technology as Chrome. With Windows 11, Microsoft has found another way and it may be annoying many people already.

Microsoft will now send prompts when you try to download Google Chrome browser. These prompts are crafty but their main goal is to convince you not to go ahead with the download. Some of the quirky messages that these prompts include are:

• “I hate saving money,” said no one ever. Microsoft Edge is the best browser for online shopping.
• “That browser is so 2008! Do you know what’s new? Microsoft Edge.”

Another one is as straightforward as it could get.

• “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft.”

The messages, spotted by Neowin, pop up on the upper right corner of the Microsoft Edge browser. When you boot Windows 11, or even Windows 10, you have two pre-installed browsers: Edge and Internet Explorer. The latter is now deep-buried and you will not see it anywhere, but the former is right there on the desktop screen, so you would instinctively use Edge for all your needs, including downloading Google Chrome.

Discouraging Windows 11 or Windows 10 users from going for a third-party internet browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox is a part of Microsoft’s campaign that it launched more than three years ago. In addition to sending prompts like these now, Microsoft has also made switching to the default browser on Windows 11 more complicated than ever. It now needs you to select the default browser for each type of web link, after you choose Microsoft Edge as the default browser for everything after downloading a new browser.

Recently, Microsoft began showing Edge users a “buy now, pay later” tool in the US that was supposed to give a short-term financing service to customers visiting shopping websites on the browser. The move was heavily criticised as some people even said that they would stop using the Edge browser with these forced pop-ups. And that may go away considering Microsoft may be testing the tool, but there is another way – a pushy one – which may not go away. Microsoft forces people into using the Edge browser through the Windows update, and you can do nothing about it.