Microsoft Now Wants You To Take a Poll Before Installing Google Chrome (neowin.net) 149
Downloading Chrome using Microsoft Edge is already a nightmare filled with banners and stop-gaps, and nothing seems to be stopping Microsoft from adding even more. From a report: Last weekend, we noticed that an attempt to download Google Chrome using Microsoft Edge results in the latter opening its sidebar with a poll, asking you to explain to Microsoft how you could dare try downloading Google Chrome. Of course, the exact wording is more tame, but you get the idea. Now, besides dismissing several banners and a full-size ad injected on the Chrome website, Edge wants you to answer a questionnaire with the following options:
We love having you! Can you please take a minute to tell us why you are trying another browser?
I can't search Google easily
I can't access my Google documents
I don't have my favorites or passwords here
Too many ads and pop-ups
I don't like the news feed
It's too slow
My websites don't work on Microsoft Edge
My reason is not listed
We love having you! Can you please take a minute to tell us why you are trying another browser?
I can't search Google easily
I can't access my Google documents
I don't have my favorites or passwords here
Too many ads and pop-ups
I don't like the news feed
It's too slow
My websites don't work on Microsoft Edge
My reason is not listed
Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
MS, I don't trust you.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
using Microsoft Edge
There's your problem.
Re:Easy (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, some of us have learned to distrust Google just as much as we distrust Microsoft.
While I agree this is bogus behavior on Microsoft's part... the wording of this post makes me think the author is quite the Google fanboi.
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You don't trust Microsoft so you install Chrome because... you trust Google more? Wow, the mind boggles.
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Microsoft has worked hard for decades to make me not trust them. Google hasn't had as many decades yet, but they are more efficient, so I already don't trust them either. But Google already has got all my data from my Android phone, so why give it to Microsoft too?
On the other hand, Microsoft has all my data from my Windows PC too...
Actually, the reason why I don't like Edge has nothing to do with my distrust of Microsoft. Edge is just not good and they try to thrust it on me on every occasion.
I don't use C
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Shall we perhaps look at the facts before reaching a conclusion?
Google Chrome does not contain ads. Microsoft Windows does. So Google is more trustworthy not to bake ads into their software.
Google has extensive and fine grained privacy controls (at least in the EU, is it different in the US?). Microsoft has none, you have to use third party apps and there are limits to those.
Microsoft removes features that help users improve their privacy. Google not only allows extensive and powerful ad-blocking and privac
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come on, big deal:
- avoid the poll if possible
- nope? just tick random answers until done
- download whatever you wanted to
if public education at least barely works this shouldn't be an issue. if it is, we have bigger problems.
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come on, big deal:
- avoid the poll if possible - nope? just tick random answers until done - download whatever you wanted to
if public education at least barely works this shouldn't be an issue. if it is, we have bigger problems.
Microsoft (among others) is doing its best to make it so we own nothing and rent everything. They've repeatedly and unrepentantly created products and software which keep us paying more and more money for less and less control.
So yes, this is a "big deal", and treating it as such is a moral obligation for anyone who doesn't want to continue being bent over and screwed by corporations.
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i only tend to moral obligations once every leap-year. meanwhile, if this is such a big deal for you ... have you tried not buying their crap? they understand and listen to wallets.
spot the problem? most people is perfectly fine with this, because they don't know better and/or just don't give a fuck. that could be a big deal, maybe even a moral obligation well spent. good luck with that, though.
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It is time that Microsoft gets another big fine in the EU I guess. They haven't learned it from the first time.
Re:Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
MS, I don't trust you.
If you don't trust them you probably shouldn't be using their OS in the first place, lol
Edge is just Chromium with some Microsoft specific stuff baked in. Chrome is -- wait for it, mind blower coming -- just Chromium with some Google specific stuff baked in.
Edge is probably the better choice for a Microsoft shop, for ease of administration, but it's not so much better that it's a hill worth dying on if your users prefer a different solution. Ditto a Google shop, Chrome is probably better if your users spend all day in Workspace, but you can do the same thing on Edge and in other browsers.
My company is compelled to deal with an asinine SaaS vendor that disclaims all support if you don't use Chrome, even though Edge is based on the same code, and the website works just fine in Safari and Firefox. I tell my users they can use whatever browser they want but be prepared to switch back to Chrome if you need support from this particular vendor.
The real problem with Edge is Microsoft burned all their goodwill with IE. Even the folks who know it's not based on IE's code (a surprisingly small minority, even in tech circles) are still disinclined to use it because of the bad taste years of IE drama left in their mouth.
Re:Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Tend to agree.
Original IE was pretty bad in various ways, and it was a tool of MS's attempts to control HTML and JS standards etc.
Even original Edge (2015-2020 with its own EdgeHTML renderer) was fine. I've been lately (past ~3 years) using a combo of new Edge, Firefox, and Brave and they're all pretty reasonable (w/ added pluings such as Ghostery , ofc).
To me Chrome is now the big "we'll drive web standards", "this site looks better in Chrome" , "please log into your Browser", "can i log you into this website w/ your google account?" behemoth framework of ... questionable to negative intent.
Re: Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Chrome hassles you to do Google stuff less than edge hassles you when you do Google stuff. Both companies are evil, but Microsoft is clearly more of a PITA at this point. Their browser has NO business interjecting itself between me and my chosen content.
At home I run Firefox, at work I need to run chrome or edge. I don't have any other choices.
Re: Easy (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact that Edge enjoys the privilege of seizing OS level associations for file types like PDF (when no other non-Microsoft application can do this) is fucking shady as hell.
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The only association I can tell which Edge seizes for PDFs are for when you open a PDF in Edge. Literally I work with PDFs daily and the only time this comes up is if I download something in Edge and click open from within Edge. Every "OS level" call made to a PDF opens in Nitro.
The OS privilege it enjoys is for web content (links) from the OS search bar, and Microsoft is rolling that back so that your preferred browser will be used instead (thanks to the EU giving them an angry stare).
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"At home I run Firefox, at work I need to run chrome or edge. I don't have any other choices"
Thanks to occasionally needing to support some legacy stuff that won't be going away any time soon, I need several browsers, several versions of a couple & a couple running in VMs with old JAVA plugins that would otherwise be blocked by the corporate security utils, to get through the work week - and more than a few weekends
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>"At home I run Firefox, at work I need to run chrome or edge. I don't have any other choices."
Why?
I use Firefox and work and home and on hundreds of computers I manage. I think maybe a few sites had some problem, and I made sure to let those sites/companies know they are broken. Any company that wants my money or our corporate money better make sure they support open web standards or I will look at other offerings. It is 2023 and we ABSOLUTELY should not be held to a browser monopoly (Chrom*) again.
Re: Easy (Score:3)
Why? Because they said so.
This might come as a surprise but some of us follow our employer's policies. IT tends to be a bit grumpy when you install unapproved software.
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OK, that is fair/valid. My bad.
I was under the [mis]-assumption there was some other reason. Easy to assume people might have a choice when they don't, especially since I was looking at it from a different lens (IT side, not user side).
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To me Chrome is now the big "we'll drive web standards", "this site looks better in Chrome" , "please log into your Browser", "can i log you into this website w/ your google account?" behemoth framework of ... questionable to negative intent.
That's one of the moral dilemmas I see about using Brave. Still supports Google's iron grip over emerging web standards.
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>"That's one of the moral dilemmas I see about using Brave. Still supports Google's iron grip over emerging web standards."
And you are absolutely correct.
Hey- if you like their search, use it:
http://search.brave.com/ [brave.com]
But if you use their browser, or Edge, or Chrome, or Chromium, or pretty much anything other than Firefox or Safari, you are supporting Google's control over the web. And that is really not good.
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Brave is malware. The latest bullshit is installing a VPN without your permission: https://www.windowscentral.com... [windowscentral.com]
That's just the latest in a long line of violations though.
They have a crypto currency scam built into the browser. Or at least they used to, I heard that the shitcoin crashed and burned. It's still got a crypto wallet. They were caught inserting their own referral codes into links. They replaced web ads with their own.
They can't be trusted.
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Even the folks who know it's not based on IE's code (a surprisingly small minority, even in tech circles) are still disinclined to use it because of the bad taste years of IE drama left in their mouth.
The weird thing is that Microsoft had just finished getting their own Edge browser engine (Trident) to a usable state. And then they dumped it for Chromium.
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My mother does not have admin access on her computer. Yet somehow, Edge got installed on it last week. Along with a halloween theme to the taskbar. No one asked for this update, and how the update even happened without going through an admin account, or at least having to enter the admin password, is bizarre. And of course, you can't uninstall Edge easily, it's painful to do and you have to set a registry key to prevent it from later re-installing.
So more evidence that Microsoft assumes your computer is
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Obviously, but do you trust Google?
Re: Easy (Score:2)
Or: âoewhy are you getting in the way of my personal presences?â
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Same here.
Why did people trust MS on Win10/11 upgrade? (Score:2)
MS invented the side-by-side DLL's, that enabled compatibility between progs that ran on Win98-Win7, yet when MS came out with Win10/11 and claim
incompatibility betweeen those and Win7 people just bought it and believe(d) them.
Personally I'm for nationalizing and forcing Open Source on products like Win7 and Photoshop5 (& CS5) that software publishers refuse to support anymore.
Let Open Source support what SW publishers refuse to support and certainly strip copyright from unsupported works.
Re: Why did people trust MS on Win10/11 upgrade? (Score:2)
What are you on about? Windows 7 is officially still supported until Oct 8, 2024 and it is very likely a big customer can purchase additional support at a cost afterwards. The Navy did so for Windows XP at a price of approximately $4000/device/year.
There is a perfectly functional long term support operating system in Linux, no need to force a company to release their crappy source code to artificially elongate their presence in the market. The harder Microsoft pushes to get people on their cloud, the faster
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>"MS, I don't trust you."
But trust Google more?
I think instead of a poll, they should give out red pills and then the user can/should install Firefox.
Re: Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft's primary business is crushing competitors with malicious and illegal business practices.
I can predict what the poll results in (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever option is the default or the one that is easiest to click will win by a landslide.
People don't give a fuck about your poll, MS. They just want to get it over with.
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You don't need to click any of the options. Download will start regardless. The poll thingy is displayed in a side bar. Most people will likely either totally ignore it, or just hit the "x" at the top right to close the side bar.
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Literally nothing is the default and nothing needs to be clicked. The thing that you do in Edge after downloading Chrome or Firefox is wait for the installer to start and hitting the X button. Both can be done by users as previously.
Nightmare? (Score:3)
They're annoying, but a "nightmare" to install? I literally just did it today and I recall one popup, and an ad for Edge at the top of Google's result. And I didn't have to actually click either.
It's AFTER when the nightmare begins.
Re:Nightmare? (Score:5, Informative)
And you reckon an OS maker running polls and ads uninvited on your computer is not a nightmare?
Are you old enough to remember a time when your own computer was your computer and didn't run code you didn't install on it?
The only thing that used to run without being explicitely installed on computers was viruses. Now there isn't a commercial OS that isn't either a digital billboard or a data collection platform, and you agreed to neither of those things.
That to me is a nightmare.
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It was a joke, man. Read my whole comment.
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What do you mean "install"? Did your first computer have a hard drive?
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And you reckon an OS maker running polls and ads uninvited on your computer is not a nightmare?
Not really. A completely ignorable popup bar that in no way moves or hinders the next action I undertake (hitting the X button as soon as the installer starts) is not my idea of a nightmare. It's not even my idea of a memorable dream of any kind. In fact it is quite forgettable in the grand scheme of things. Your life must be insanely fucking perfect for this to be a nightmare for you, but then I think the entire real world would be a nightmare and you should probably not go outside or turn on a TV ever.
Are you old enough to remember a time when your own computer was your computer and didn't run code you didn't install on it?
Lit
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Should've been outraged when 10 was being pushed on people. Now you're several years too late. And unfortunately we do have to agree to it, because we're not entitled to a desktop OS. They get to make it, and since there was very little protest outside of people like myself against 10, Microsoft correctly understood that it can get away with a lot more.
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What are you talking about? What principles? I don't have any of those!
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compared to simply typing "apt install chromium" without needing to Google anything or see any pop-up at all, that does sound quite bad, yes. It's really telling that people seem to find it normal to see pop-ups when they try to install software.
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>"compared to simply typing "apt install chromium"
apt install firefox
Fixed that for ya :)
>"without needing to Google anything"
https://duckduckgo.com/ [duckduckgo.com]
https://startpage.com/ [startpage.com]
https://search.brave.com/ [brave.com]
Fixed that for ya too!
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Firefox was pre-installed
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You do know the equivalent exists in Windows, right? There's zero need to use Edge to get Chrome
Too many chromium options to know which is a good one, but for Chrome, "winget install Google.Chrome"
Yes, it's childish, but comes from all parties. (Score:2)
Sorry, but Google is just as annoying when you visit them. Always pushing their browser. It's childish behavior from big tech and users suffer. I already have a browser, thanks.
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Always pushing their browser
It's worse than that. Try using Google private/incognito. It is a constant nag to log into your Google account and a nearly as constant nag to cough up location permissions.
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Try using Google private/incognito. It is a constant nag to log into your Google account and a nearly as constant nag to cough up location permissions.
That's something quite new; it's been happening to me in just the past few months but yes, very annoying
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There's a huge difference between being pushy about a browser when visiting that company's website, compared to a browser being pushy via injected ads/polls when you visit their competitor's website. I just checked the Edge download page in Chrome and I see no google ads there.
My reason is not listed (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no "Shove it you nosy bastards!" option.
I feel like the government has given up trying to regulate the tech industry. They're going to just let anticompetitive behavior fly now.
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I feel like the government has given up trying to regulate the tech industry. They're going to just let anticompetitive behavior fly now.
Dude... It's been like this since Reagan.
There's a reason why a 10000% obvious monopoly like Microsoft didn't get broken up over 20 years ago, and all the big tech players of today heard that particular message loud and clear in 2001.
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MS was almost split in 1999 after losing a case involving the Sherman Act, but was saved by some technicalities during appeals. It's not impossible to go after these companies, or at least it wasn't impossible 20+ years ago. But the deck is definitely stacked in favor of the top corporations.
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but was saved by some technicalities during appeals.
I think it would be more correct to say that Microsoft was saved by the election. A Republican administration wasn't interested in breaking up Microsoft.
Re: My reason is not listed (Score:2)
Nobody is forcing you to use Microsoft products. The entire company could disappear tomorrow and nobody really would have a problem going to Linux or Mac or another competitor that may spring up in the void.
Iâ(TM)ve migrated many people from Windows to either Mac or Linux, the only people still use Windows is because people are lazy at every level. I recently had a client hacked because they used a very out of date CMS publicly on Windows Server, why, because people were too lazy to go through the moti
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My informatics education surely forced me to at least use a Windows VM. The lessons were not passible without because we needed to use stuff like visual studio.
And still a lot of companies force you to use Microsoft machines and/or their software.
Not even talking about vendor-lockins.
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The case was first ruled an antitrust violation by a judge appointed by Reagan (Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson). And overturned by a circuit court judges appointed by Carter (Harry T. Edwards), Reagan (Stephen F. Williams and Douglas H. Ginsburg), H.W. Bush (A. Raymond Randolph), Clinton (Judith W. Rogers and David S. Tatel), and John Roberts (David B. Sentelle).
It's really unlikely that George W. Bush, having only been in office for a few weeks could have influenced the outcome of this trial. Especially giv
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It's really unlikely that George W. Bush, having only been in office for a few weeks could have influenced the outcome of this trial. Especially given that so many of the justices were appointed by so-called liberal administrations.
It's my [possibly faulty] recollection that the Justice department lawyers stopped pushing for a breakup of Microsoft. I wasn't implying that the judges were influenced by the election, but obviously the administration can influence what its own lawyers ask for.
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Does the EU have any important tech companies? I mean ones that aren't focused almost exclusively on making chips or making telephone equipment?
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And for tech: ASML & Philips in The Netherlands for starters
Re: My reason is not listed (Score:2)
Every time someone brings up any mention of regulation on ArsTechnica, then it gets down voted to hell. People donâ(TM)t like the current situation, but âoedonâ(TM)t dare bring the industry into line by regulationsâ [rolling eyes].
Re: My reason is not listed (Score:2)
Oh and in the meantime, /. still ignores the existence of utf-8.
Enshittification (Score:5, Interesting)
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What do you mean joining? Based on a history of Slashdot comments Windows was enshittifying back before Larry Page was picking his nose during lectures at the University of Michigan, before he even had a garage.
But they don't do the same thing with Firefox (Score:2)
When I set up a computer here at work, I always install both Chrome and Firefox, since different users have different preferences.
Firefox doesn't give a damn if I download Chrome after I install Firefox.
Use Winget instead (Score:5, Informative)
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Missing option (Score:2)
Not that Google is much less pushy about switching to Chrome, but if you're going to force me to answer a question before I do what I want then you should at least let me answer that your question is the reason for my decision. The same as every app I've left a negative review for.
Me: [doing what the app is intended for and generally enjoying life]
App: [interrupts with a dialog box forcing me to choose an option] Are you enjoying App?
Me: No, I am no
Obvious Answer (Score:5, Funny)
Cowboy Neal told me to
Bypass script or registry entry when? (Score:2)
Windows annoyances (including product activation) are frequently addressed by the user community which produced all sorts of tweaks since the early days.
The annoyances mostly affect noobs who are the most lucrative to monetize. Experienced users often keep folders of post-install tweaks to make using Windows suck less and have done so since the early days.
Please fire the idiots at MSFT (Score:2)
Missing option (Score:3)
I can't search Google easily
I can't access my Google documents
I don't have my favorites or passwords here
Too many ads and pop-ups
I don't like the news feed
It's too slow
My websites don't work on Microsoft Edge
My reason is not listed
The "I can't stand Microsoft and wish it would die" option isn't there. (??)
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MINUTUS-MOLLIS non tolare et delenda est
I wonder why... (Score:2)
...you are pestering me so hard to use a free product?
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Yeah, that's a head scratcher.
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https://www.theverge.com/2023/... [theverge.com]
https://www.neowin.net/news/ed... [neowin.net]
https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com]
Hmmmm, I wonder how they would possibly be benefiting from providing a 'free' product and urging you to avoid a competitor...
SMH (Score:2)
from an elevated command prompt (Run As Administrator)
winget install Google.Chrome
I would answer (Score:2)
I would get upset at this (Score:2)
But exit polling while changing software software literally dates back to the days of Windows 98, though traditionally this occurs during the uninstall process. I'm honestly surprised they haven't done this sooner.
90s M$ is back (Score:2)
Sounds like more of the shenanigans of the typical 90s M$ behavior of FUD. And here I thought they are now suddenly the good guys because they are integrating Linuxâ¦
There should be some anti-trust issue in here (Score:2)
There should be some anti-trust issue in here somewhere. They were reprimanded for much less during the Netscape days, and they were not actively sabotaging the competition, but rather providing a free alternative. (I might even say a "better" alternative, at least for a while. As Netscape got cocky, and gave us constant crashes taking down entire sessions, where IE5 was much more stable. Of course, Microsoft one upped them, and made their own browser even worse very quickly).
Anyway, I as a a user, should h
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Even worse is the required MS account creation for Windows 11 setup. I can't believe the FTC hasn't done something about this yet. IANAL, but this seems like very obvious illegal monopoly behavior to me.
I'm afraid. (Score:2)
Bloated (Score:2)
MS added a whole bunch of useless functionality to Edge that would have been better implemented as extensions which users could easily ignore. Instead they baked it into the main product and turned it on by default in the hope that users would be too lazy to disable it. That way if users did turn it off they could "accidently" renable it using an "update".
MS really despise the users of their products.
in their face (Score:2)
I run Firefox wherever I can, but every single time when I had to install a Windows PC (it happens quite often at work) I do like to download Chrome with Edge, only to see them begging I don't do that.
Re:next up same poll on linux download sites (Score:5, Insightful)
Wrong: it's not game that keeps people on Windows, it's work.
Most companies roll with Microsoft for historical reasons - including some major work-related software that only works on Windows, like SolidWorks, because they're too cheap and too lazy to do their own IT and because they don't give a rat's ass about principles.
People have to work to earn a living, and that's how Microsoft keeps their claws on them.
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because they're too cheap and too lazy to do their own IT and because they don't give a rat's ass about principles.
Umm, I do my company's IT. For us, it's less about principles, and zero about vendor lock-in (none of our essential apps are Windows only), instead, it comes down to:
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I'm not talking about companies, but about individual, personal computers. People use computers as a tool or for entertainment; at home, my computer is used for browsing/streaming and games, that's it (and ok, filing taxes once a year). If I didn't game, I'd have switched to Linux or iOS a while ago.
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So how are they all using chrome? Reality disagrees with you.
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...at home, my computer is used for browsing/streaming and games, that's it (and ok, filing taxes once a year). If I didn't game, I'd have switched to Linux or iOS a while ago.
And I do all that (and more) in Linux. Proton is a real game changer. (Pun intended.)
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And at work it's often IT that mandates to use only applications from Redmond. They can't have an outsourced IT team on the other side of the planet if the PCs aren't all cookie cutter clones. OMG, if you're not using Sharepoint you might actualy be productive, so let's put a stop to that right now!
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I have hurt my career big time by refusing to work with Windows, but it is worth it.
I accept a Mac, but not a Windows machine.
Except for testing I haven't used a Windows (VM) in like 14 years, ever since I completed my education
And for even for testing I don't need a Windows VM any-more on my machine, long live Browserstack.
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Wrong: it's not game that keeps people on Windows, it's work.
Wrong. Because you're talking in absolutes and ignoring the reality that the world is complex. Yes I'm posting this from my Windows forced work PC, so you're right. But my desktop at home is a Windows gaming PC, so the OP was also right, and yes I have a Steamdeck and I also have a Linux machine with Proton installed.
Stop pretending the world fits into a single category. There are many reasons people choose certain OSes.
Re: Why am I downloading another browser ...? (Score:2)
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for me it's the implication that my OS maker should care one whiff about what i run on MY computer (not theirs, mine.) .. windows 7 it's been a non stop push for
MS is just getting way too god damn clingy and intrusive ever since about
>have you tried cortana, please try it, you'll love it!
>how about skydrive? please try it.
>bing in your search bar? we're not asking anymore. but trust us, you'll learn to accept it.
>here's some updates you didn't want, don't need, and in all likelihood will break s
or just use the package manager (Score:2)
Easy peasy!
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Thank you!
Saved for the next Winstall I do.