Microsoft is Force-Feeding Edge To Windows Users With a Spyware-like Install

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Sean Hollister, writing for The Verge:

If I told you that my entire computer screen just got taken over by a new app that I’d never installed or asked for – it just magically appeared on my desktop, my taskbar, and preempted my next website launch – you’d probably tell me to run a virus scanner and stay away from shady websites, no? But the insanely intrusive app I’m talking about isn’t a piece of ransomware. It’s Microsoft’s new Chromium Edge browser, which the company is now force-feeding users via an automatic update to Windows. Seriously, when I restarted my Windows 10 desktop this week, an app I’d never asked for:

  1. Immediately launched itself
  2. Tried to convince me to migrate away from Chrome, giving me no discernible way to click away or say no
  3. Pinned itself to my desktop and taskbar
  4. Ignored my previous browser preference by asking me – the next time I launched a website – whether I was sure I wanted to use Chrome instead of Microsoft’s oh-so-humble recommendation.
  5. Did I mention that, as of this update, you can’t uninstall Edge anymore?
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