Not content with forcing all Windows 11 users to install the Edge browser, Microsoft will now use Edge by default to open all links clicked in Outlook or Teams.
“To help increase productivity while working online, web links from Azure Active Directory (AAD) accounts and Microsoft (MSA) accounts in the Outlook for Windows app will open in Microsoft Edge and display the opened link in a single view along with its Emails from are displayed side-by-side. Web links will open as new tabs in Microsoft Edge and emails will open in the Edge sidebar, so users can easily refer to open links and emails side-by-side without opening the app Switch back and forth between.
This change will roll out to organizations over the next 30 days, and Microsoft 365 users will gradually switch to this new link opening policy. The same changes are coming to Teams, but Microsoft will announce when they happen separately.
As you might expect, the decision to try to force Edge made a lot of people angry. That’s understandable when you consider that Microsoft published a blog post back in March that began with this sentence: “Today, we’re reaffirming our longstanding approach to giving people control over their Windows PC experience, And enable developers to take advantage of our open platform. The post goes on to state that Microsoft will “ensure that people who use Windows have control over changes to their pins and defaults.
After two months, Windows started to look less open, with control taken away from the user. What changed, Microsoft?
Anyone unhappy with this change can, with a bit of work, tweak the options in Outlook to revert to using their default browser for getting links (hat tip Neowin ). Microsoft hides the option in the advanced settings, so navigate to the ” File > Options > Advanced > Link Handling , then use the drop-down box to change to Switch to Default Browser.
