Switching Default Apps in Windows 10 Will Soon Become Harder: Report

In July, Mozilla criticised Microsoft for playing unfair with how it assigns default applications in Windows 10. It seems that was just the beginning of more concerning things to come as the company is now resorting to further practices to promote its own apps over those made by its rivals.

In the recently leaked Windows 10 preview build 10568, if a user has Microsoft Edge set as their default browser, installs Chrome or Firefox, and then tries to switch to either of them as the new default browser, the company shows a prompt asking the user to "give Microsoft Edge a shot."

The prompt lists several of Microsoft Edge features - the ability to annotate on webpages, use Cortana, among others - and shows a big and bold option saying "don't switch and try now." Clicking on the button will keep Edge as the default browser.

It isn't limited to just the browser, do note. As the Verge reports, Microsoft is showing the same dialogue box when a user tries to set the default image viewing application or music player application to their third-party counterparts.

Two months ago, Mozilla CEO Chris Beard wrote a blog post addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressing his concerns with Windows 10. Beard noted that Microsoft had made it harder to change the default app in the new desktop operating system. In Windows 10, users can't change the default browser at the time of installing an application. As a result, users have to put more efforts to change the default app. Users who upgraded from Windows 7 or 8.1 would have expected their settings to remain, but this evidently wasn't the case.

"It now takes more than twice the number of mouse clicks, scrolling through content and some technical sophistication for people to reassert the choices they had previously made in earlier versions of Windows," claims Beard. "It's confusing, hard to navigate and easy to get lost." Beard wrote.

To gain users, Microsoft is ostensibly making it harder to switch to other applications. However, it's worth noting that the change is only visible in a leaked build, which is yet to release to public. The final version may not have the changes.