this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
451 points (99.1% liked)

Technology

59466 readers
3684 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
451
The EU will finally free Windows users from Bing (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
43 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

All of these Windows 11 changes are part of key tweaks that Microsoft has to make to its operating system to comply with the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act, which comes into effect in March 2024.

Alongside clearly marking which apps are system components in Windows 11, Microsoft is also responding by adding the ability to uninstall the following apps:

  • Camera
  • Cortana (already removable and thrown in the trash)
  • Web Search from Microsoft Bing, in the EEA
  • Microsoft Edge, in the EEA
  • Photos

Only Windows 11 users in the EEA will be able to fully remove Microsoft Edge and the Bing-powered web search from Windows Search. Microsoft could easily extend this to all Windows 11 users, but it’s limiting this extra functionality to EEA markets to comply with the rules. “Windows uses the region chosen by the customer during device setup to identify if the PC is in the EEA,”

Microsoft will allow EEA machines to remove the Bing results, so Google could provide its own search results here and effectively become the default if a user has uninstalled Bing. “If the user has more than one search provider installed, Windows Search will show the last one used when opened,”

So possibly search engines like ddgo and others may be able to develop an integration to be able to be used in the windows search menu.

But no nice things for outside the EEA.

Now I hope that when uninstalling edge, it won't auto reinstall back like the f piece of s omen software which installs itself because I have an hp display.

Also what would happen if a user, who has no idea what they are doing, uninstalls edge without having another browser available?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Also what would happen if a user, who has no idea what they are doing, uninstalls edge without having another browser available?

I guess not allowing the current default browser to be uninstalled while there is no other program available that can be made the default browser would be a simple and viable solution here.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

They have to use terminal to download a new one, duh.

Or more likely, there will be an option to use the OS's installation media or something to install edge again, if not a still-legal-to-remove-but-separate-from-edge installer that would take someone who knows what they're doing to remove.

load more comments (1 replies)