You cant install windows 11 on older hardware > turns out you can

You cant update to windows 11 on older hardware > turns out you can

You cant set a different default browser > turns out you can

You cant set a different default browser (again) > turns out you can

There is zero reason to believe that this will stay. Also its a dev build its not like this breaks anyone's workflow unless someone choose to work on a dev build and therefore accepted such and way worse hiccups.

Absolutely worth it to read the linked post by the EdgeDeflect author too: https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/microsoft-edge-protocol-competit...

Even if you'll eventually somehow be able to circumvent this, I'm more baffled by the sheer amount of effort Microsoft puts into locking Edge as the (de-facto) default browser. The changes OP described show pretty clearly this is deliberate and not just for whatever technical reasons there could be.

E.g. even if microsoft-edge:// links had some proprietary features that are required for OS integration - say, opening the page in a specific existing process or something - it makes no sense to rewrite ordinary https:// urls into microsoft-edge:// urls - which Windows seems to be doing ("and links sent to the device from a paired Samsung or Android devices").

On the other hand, if they are so hell-bent on making Edge the default browser, why are they go through all the trouble with "link associations" and permit other browsers at all? By now it seems sort of odd they didn't simply hardwire https:// to Edge directly.

In any way, this smells like another antitrust lawsuit waiting around the corner.

Why bother? I already know no one will talk about this in 3 weeks because its resolved and wont ever affect anyone running the release versions anyway.

Will it? So far it seems they are pretty persistent in blocking all workarounds. I don't think the users will bother so much, but the other browser vendors might take issue.

>they are pretty persistent in blocking all workarounds

Weird interpretation of reality. Nothing is or has been blocked on the windows people actually use.

Its only broken on a single dev build.

Addendum: It's officially mentioned in the release notes [1]:

> We fixed an issue where OS functionality could be improperly redirected when microsoft-edge: links are invoked.

[1] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/11/12/releasi...

Also this https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector/issues/142#issuecommen... setting might me important for some people.