Microsoft forcing Edge on users again, claims it's safer than Firefox or Chrome

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Microsoft hates the fact that Windows 10 users continue to dwell on Chrome and Firefox as their default browsers. As such, the company has been busy lately trying to come up with new tricks, tips and comparisons to convince users to adopt the built-in Edge browser. This time, the software giant claims its Edge browser is more secure than the other two.

If you run Windows 10, you may have noticed that Microsoft has turned on a new set of Windows Tips to inform Chrome and Firefox users that Edge is a safer browser. When inquired, Microsoft reported that this latest recommendation had been active since November. Getting a sense of deja vu?

It is because a similar thing happened back in July when Microsoft started generating notifications warning Chrome/Firefox users about battery drain and then recommended Edge instead:

This wave of Windows Tips for Windows 10 users began in early November. These Windows Tips notifications were created to provide people with quick, easy information that can help them enhance their Windows 10 experience.

The pop-up notifications are a part of Microsoft’s “Windows Tips for Windows 10” campaign which launched in early November. As claimed by Microsoft, the service was launched as a means to promote or educate users about the new Windows 10 features. But lately, it seems that Microsoft has been using it more to its advantage, not to user benefit. The company has lately been criticized for attempting to promote features affiliated to advertisements.

The notification read:

Microsoft Edge is safer than Firefox. It blocks 21% more socially engineered malware. Learn more.

A similar message is shown to Chrome users but with a different percentage. Microsoft claims to have drawn the statistics from NSS Labs, an independent testing facility that selects vendors and products for their group tests based on global market share and end-user requests.

The browser tests and experiments conducted by this company prove that Edge blocks 91.4% of phishing URLs and 99% of social engineered malware. The percentage values for Chrome were 82.4% and 85.8%, and for Firefox 81.4% and 78.3%.

Given the circumstances, it doesn’t look like Edge is doing so well with only a 5% market share. It does seem that Microsoft has intensified its browser cold war lately, exploiting its place as the creator of the most popular OS. It appears that the company is using its OS more for promotion purposes than user convenience, while its competitors Google and Firefox don’t have the same kind of leverage and resources to highlight their strengths.

Annoyed with these notifications? We won’t blame you if you are. Just press the keys Windows-I to open the Settings app, go to System > Notifications & actions, Locate “Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows“, and switch the preference to Off.

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More about the topics: Firefox guides, Microsoft Edge issues