Microsoft Forces Users To Use Edge Again With New Windows 11 Update

Microsoft loves Edge, and it wants all Windows 11 users to love it too. The tech giant has made several efforts to enforce its Chromium-based browser upon users. From making it tedious to change the default browser in Windows 11 to blocking Firefox’s workaround to set itself as the default browser, Microsoft has now blocked EdgeDeflector for all Windows 11 users as it forces users to switch to Edge.

EdgeDeflector is a utility that redirects links that are designed to open only on Edge in your default browser instead. Likewise, Microsoft pushed the EdgeDeflector block to all Windows 11 users with build 22000.376. Microsoft wants users to open certain links only inside its browser, enforcing it.

New Windows 11 update blocks EdgeDeflector

The EdgeDeflector block first showed up on the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Program, warning users about it. Hence, it was obvious that the company would push it to all Windows 11 users.

“This update contains miscellaneous security improvements to internal OS functionality. No additional issues were documented for this release,” says the supporting document for the Windows 11 update. This changelog most likely refers to the EdgeDeflector block.

Further, it’s essential to mention that this change applies only to some custom links part of Windows. For instance, links from the widgets panel or a search result from Windows search. Apps like EdgeDeflector intercept these links and redirect them to your default browser.

An alternative to EdgeDeflector showed up shortly after its block, called MSEdgeRedirect. The app uses a unique approach to redirect Microsoft Edge links via the command line. Although, this app needs to be running all the time in the background to function, unlike EdgeDeflector.

Looking in its footsteps, Microsoft is likely to block the app shortly. Until then, you can download and set up MSEdgeRedirect from its GitHub repository.