From the «use Edge and like it» department:
Feed: Slashdot
Title: Microsoft To Block Windows 11 Browser Workarounds
Author: BeauHD
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2021 17:40:00 -0500
Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/11/12/211252/microsoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

The creator of EdgeDeflector said this week that the latest Insider build of
Windows 11 now blocks all default browser workarounds. Thurrott reports: If this
functionality makes its way to the finished product, it will mark a new, dark
chapter for Microsoft, which told the media at the Windows 11 launch that it was
aware that it had made changing app defaults pointlessly difficult, but that it
had not done so maliciously and would fix it. This is the opposite of that
claim. "Something changed between Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 (both
Windows Insider Preview builds)," EdgeDeflector creator Daniel Aleksandersen
writes in a new blog entry. "The build changelog ... omitted the headline news:
you can no longer bypass Microsoft Edge using apps like EdgeDeflector."
Basically, EdgeDeflector, as well as third-party browsers like Mozilla Firefox
and Brave, intercept OS-level URL requests that force you to use Microsoft Edge
even when you have gone through the incredibly ponderous steps to make a
non-Edge browser the default in Windows 11. But in the latest Insider Preview
build, Microsoft is changing how these URL requests work. And it's no longer
possible to intercept URL requests that force users to use Edge instead of their
default browser. (In the Insider builds. This functionality will come to
mainstream users in the coming months unless we can change Microsoft's
collective mind.) "You can't change the default protocol association through
registry changes, OEM partner customizations, modifications to the Microsoft
Edge package, interference with OpenWith.exe, or any other hackish workarounds,"
Aleksandersen explains. "Microsoft ... just silently ignores the UserChoice
registry keys for the protocol in the registry and opens Microsoft Edge
instead." It's even worse than that, really, he continues. "Windows will insist
you use Microsoft Edge to a fault even if you brutalize your Windows
installation and purge all traces of Microsoft Edge. Windows will open an empty
UWP window and show an error message instead of letting you use your preferred
web browser."

[image 2][2][image 4][4]

Read more of this story[5] at Slashdot.

Links:
[1]: http://twitter.com/home?status=Microsoft+To+Block+Windows+11+Browser+Workarounds%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3Dh12z6 (link)
[2]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (image)
[3]: http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F21%2F11%2F12%2F211252%2Fmicrosoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook (link)
[4]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (image)
[5]: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/11/12/211252/microsoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed (link)

--
Port 80 is overrated.

On 14-Nov-21 2:25 am, RS Wood wrote:
> From the «use Edge and like it» department:
> Feed: Slashdot
> Title: Microsoft To Block Windows 11 Browser Workarounds
> Author: BeauHD
> Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2021 17:40:00 -0500
> Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/11/12/211252/microsoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
>
> The creator of EdgeDeflector said this week that the latest Insider build of
> Windows 11 now blocks all default browser workarounds. Thurrott reports: If this
> functionality makes its way to the finished product, it will mark a new, dark
> chapter for Microsoft, which told the media at the Windows 11 launch that it was
> aware that it had made changing app defaults pointlessly difficult, but that it
> had not done so maliciously and would fix it. This is the opposite of that
> claim. "Something changed between Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 (both
> Windows Insider Preview builds)," EdgeDeflector creator Daniel Aleksandersen
> writes in a new blog entry. "The build changelog ... omitted the headline news:
> you can no longer bypass Microsoft Edge using apps like EdgeDeflector."
> Basically, EdgeDeflector, as well as third-party browsers like Mozilla Firefox
> and Brave, intercept OS-level URL requests that force you to use Microsoft Edge
> even when you have gone through the incredibly ponderous steps to make a
> non-Edge browser the default in Windows 11. But in the latest Insider Preview
> build, Microsoft is changing how these URL requests work. And it's no longer
> possible to intercept URL requests that force users to use Edge instead of their
> default browser. (In the Insider builds. This functionality will come to
> mainstream users in the coming months unless we can change Microsoft's
> collective mind.) "You can't change the default protocol association through
> registry changes, OEM partner customizations, modifications to the Microsoft
> Edge package, interference with OpenWith.exe, or any other hackish workarounds,"
> Aleksandersen explains. "Microsoft ... just silently ignores the UserChoice
> registry keys for the protocol in the registry and opens Microsoft Edge
> instead." It's even worse than that, really, he continues. "Windows will insist
> you use Microsoft Edge to a fault even if you brutalize your Windows
> installation and purge all traces of Microsoft Edge. Windows will open an empty
> UWP window and show an error message instead of letting you use your preferred
> web browser."
>
> [image 2][2][image 4][4]
>
> Read more of this story[5] at Slashdot.
>
> Links:
> [1]: http://twitter.com/home?status=Microsoft+To+Block+Windows+11+Browser+Workarounds%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3Dh12z6 (link)
> [2]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (image)
> [3]: http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F21%2F11%2F12%2F211252%2Fmicrosoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook (link)
> [4]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (image)
> [5]: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/11/12/211252/microsoft-to-block-windows-11-browser-workarounds?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed (link)
>
>
>

We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
about twenty years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.

Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:

[...]

> We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
> about twenty years.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.

Well said. ``These should not be forgotten years.''

Midnight Oil, Forgotten Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9eap_cKLP4

> Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:
>> We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
>> about twenty years.

The difference, perhaps, is that these days Google is doing very similar
things with Chrome. Using other browsers for most Google services
simply doesn't work as well, or at all. If you spoof the browser
string, the functionality comes back.

Both oligopolists should be straightened out.

In article <smshi7$39h$1@solani.org>,
Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> wrote:
>> Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:
>>> We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
>>> about twenty years.
>
>The difference, perhaps, is that these days Google is doing very similar
>things with Chrome. Using other browsers for most Google services
>simply doesn't work as well, or at all. If you spoof the browser
>string, the functionality comes back.

Easiest way to avoid that issue is to not use Google services to the
greatest extent possible. About the only things I still use with any
regularity are YouTube, Play Store, and Maps. I use YouTube through an
Invidious instance running in a Docker container on my home server, the Play
Store mostly through Aurora, and Maps only on the desktop at home and office
(navigation being handled by Magic Earth). I've run my own mail server
since long before Gmail even existed, I sync contacts and share files
through Nextcloud (in another container on the home server), I spun up a
TTRSS instance when Google Reader went bye-bye, I read this newsgroup and
others with trn connected to Astraweb or Eternal September...I think that's
about it for my de-googling efforts.

Oh...forgot about Qwant (or DuckDuckGo if Qwant fails) instead of Google
search. :)

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

Scott Alfter <scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us> wrote:
> In article <smshi7$39h$1@solani.org>,
> Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> wrote:
>>> Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:
>>>> We now know how long it takes Microsoft to forget its history. It's
>>>> about twenty years.
>>
>>The difference, perhaps, is that these days Google is doing very similar
>>things with Chrome. Using other browsers for most Google services
>>simply doesn't work as well, or at all. If you spoof the browser
>>string, the functionality comes back.
>
> Easiest way to avoid that issue is to not use Google services to the
> greatest extent possible. About the only things I still use with any
> regularity are YouTube, Play Store, and Maps. I use YouTube through an
> Invidious instance running in a Docker container on my home server, the Play
> Store mostly through Aurora, and Maps only on the desktop at home and office
> (navigation being handled by Magic Earth).

Of those I only use YouTube, and do all that through youtube-dl now
since their website made JS manditory. Maybe once a year I might
really need to use Street View in Google Maps, but actually real
estate websites often work as a substitute in Australia (for
identifying houses I intend to drive to, without having to deal
with insane house numbering schemes).

But things that get me are links to downloads, photos, or
documents that are hosted on Google services. A youtube-dl type
program for those would be very handy (I looked fairly recently,
but no joy). So far I've always managed to download them in Firefox
without changing the User-Agent header, though sometimes it's been
awkward so I'll keep that trick in mind.

> Oh...forgot about Qwant (or DuckDuckGo if Qwant fails) instead of Google
> search. :)

That's a new one for me. lite.quant.com uses URL redirects for the
results though, and I can't see any hint of how to disable them
with a URL parameter like you can with lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ .

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

On 2021-11-15, Scott Alfter <scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us> wrote:
> Easiest way to avoid that issue is to not use Google services to the
> greatest extent possible. About the only things I still use with any
> regularity are YouTube, Play Store, and Maps. I use YouTube through
> an Invidious instance running in a Docker container on my home server,
> the Play Store mostly through Aurora, and Maps only on the desktop at
> home and office (navigation being handled by Magic Earth). I've run
> my own mail server since long before Gmail even existed, I sync
> contacts and share files through Nextcloud (in another container on
> the home server), I spun up a TTRSS instance when Google Reader went
> bye-bye, I read this newsgroup and others with trn connected to
> Astraweb or Eternal September...I think that's about it for my
> de-googling efforts.
>
> Oh...forgot about Qwant (or DuckDuckGo if Qwant fails) instead of Google
> search. :)

Some good stuff here I wasn't aware of. Will have to check out
Invidious and Aurora.

I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.

By the way you can set up leafnode to proxy NNTP from Eternal September;
gives you a nice local cache too. I love simple/powerful software.

On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:53:40 -0000 (UTC)
Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> wrote:

> Some good stuff here I wasn't aware of. Will have to check out
> Invidious and Aurora.
>
> I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
> down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.
>
> By the way you can set up leafnode to proxy NNTP from Eternal
> September; gives you a nice local cache too. I love simple/powerful
> software.

If you're interested in Invidious you *might* also be interested in
NewPipe on Android and FreeTube on Windows and Linux.

On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:53:40 -0000 (UTC), Retrograde wrote:
> I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
> down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.

AFAICT it hasn't been updated in 4 months. I switched to a fork
called yt-dlp[1] and that seems to work fine. It continues to be updated
and is available in PyPi.

1: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

--
"The avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
--Kosh

Much obliged for the improved link!

Screw these media oligopolies. Bring back fair usage.

Matthew Ernisse <matt@going-flying.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:53:40 -0000 (UTC), Retrograde wrote:
>> I find youtube-dl doesn't work on as many systems before it was taken
>> down and then reinstated. I assume they were forced to cripple it.
>
> AFAICT it hasn't been updated in 4 months. I switched to a fork
> called yt-dlp[1] and that seems to work fine. It continues to be updated
> and is available in PyPi.
I usually find the version shipped by distro maintainers works decently
well, at least in my experience

---
Johannes