Last month, Windows 11 Insiders were among the first to see Microsoft's move to block users who avoid the Edge browser for certain features The update is now available to all Windows 11 users in build 22000376

While Windows 11 allows users to easily change their default browser functionality, some features within the OS (such as news and weather widgets) are hard-coded to open in Microsoft Edge via a "microsoft-edge://" link EdgeDefault: //" link Previously, an app like EdgeDeflector could redirect this to your preferred browser, but this loophole is now closed

This is probably because Mozilla's Firefox is reportedly planning to use the same loophole, which Microsoft described as "inappropriate" A small app with 500,000 users and a browser with 198 million fans following suit is It is one thing to have a small app with 500,000 users and quite another to have a browser with 198 million fans follow suit

"It is no longer possible to set anything other than Microsoft Edge as the protocol handler for the microsoft-edge:// protocol," wrote Daniel Aleksandersen, creator of EdgeDeflector, at the time "Rather, you can choose between Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge (Insider Beta), and Microsoft Edge (Insider Dev) Third-party apps are not allowed to handle the protocol" [Registry changes, OEM partner customizations, Edge package changes, and OpenWithexe edits cannot fix it, Aleksandersen wrote, and the developer subsequently said that it involves "destructive changes to Windows," so he developed his own application was discontinued [A new app called MSEdgeRedirect is available for download from GitHub According to the description, the app "filters the command line arguments of the Microsoft Edge process and passes them to the default browser

However, it is not as elegant a solution as EdgeDeflector

It is quite possible that this too will be blocked by Microsoft in the future, as it uses different methods to accomplish the same goal For now, however, it is an option for those who are really uncomfortable using Edge