Windows update breaks Chrome feature — makes switch from Edge more difficult
Microsoft rolled out an update to Windows in April 2023 that broke a button in Chrome which made it easy to switch to Google’s browser as the default, Gizmodo reports.
On most Windows systems, Microsoft’s Edge browser is the default option.
According to GlobalStats StatCounter, Chrome had around 63.45% of the global browser market share in April 2023, compared to 4.96% for Edge.
Users that prefer Chrome over Edge previously had to open the Apps section of Windows Settings to change the default browser app.
However, in July 2022, Google rolled out a “Make Default” button near the top of the Chrome browser window that allowed users to switch from Edge to Chrome as the default browser with a single click.
That button worked well until a user installed Windows update KB5025221, which killed the functionality.
Users on enterprise versions of Windows have had an even bigger problem since the update.
Whenever they open Chrome or a link with Chrome set as their default browser app, the Default App Settings page in Windows will open.
Windows Default Apps settings page in Windows 11.
The same does not happen if the user has Edge set as their default browser.
The update seems to specifically affect Chrome, as Mozilla Firefox users did not experience the same problems.
But Mozilla chief product offer Steve Teixeira told Gizmodo that Firefox users also regularly encountered issues on Windows, such as the overriding of their default browser selection and pop-ups and warnings encouraging users to switch to Edge as it was “safer”.
In response to a query from Gizmodo about how the latest update affected Chrome users, Microsoft would only share a blog post about upcoming updates to app pinning and app defaults.
That includes a new method for third-party apps to link users directly to the appropriate location in Settings to change their default apps.
Should Chrome choose to implement this feature, users will be provided with a link that will direct them to Settings to switch from Edge to Chrome as their default browser.
This feature is only being tested in the Windows Insider Dev Channel in the coming months, so it may take some time to arrive on stable versions of the operating system.
Now read: The end of Windows 10
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