Microsoft says it is testing a change to Windows 10 that will open links clicked within Windows Mail in Edge, even if Edge is not the default browser
Tom Warren / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2018 test is the opening move in a long pattern of Microsoft using Windows itself to push Edge traffic. A year later the browser was rebuilt on Chromium with support for Chrome extensions and a mixed Chrome/Edge UI, making it genuinely competitive — but the distribution tactics stayed the same.
The through-line is user pushback met with tighter locks: by late 2021 Microsoft confirmed it would block EdgeDeflector and similar workaround tools that rerouted Start menu search links to the user's chosen browser, and only in 2025 did EU regulation force a partial retreat, with DMA-driven Windows changes ending Edge's default-browser prompts for EEA users.
First-order effects
- Windows Mail users who set Chrome or Firefox as their default find mail links opening in Edge anyway — the OS-level default setting stops being honored inside first-party apps.
- Edge gets a guaranteed stream of inbound clicks from a bundled app, independent of any user preference Microsoft would otherwise have to win.
Second-order effects
- Third-party redirect tools like EdgeDeflector emerge to restore user choice, prompting Microsoft to block them rather than change the behavior — escalating a cat-and-mouse loop with its own power users.
- Rival browsers lose measurable referral traffic not on merit but on placement, sharpening the complaint that Microsoft is leveraging Windows dominance in the browser market it once lost to antitrust action.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, default-app steering becomes a regulatory flashpoint: the 2025 DMA concessions show that only competition law, not user settings or press coverage, reliably constrains how far an OS vendor can route its own traffic.
- Platform owners increasingly treat first-party app placement as a monetizable asset, pushing the industry toward a structure where 'defaults' are set by business terms and regulators rather than by user configuration.
The trend: OS vendors are steadily converting default-app settings into first-party traffic funnels, with regulation rather than user preference emerging as the real check on the practice.