Windows 11 will no longer open Edge to match the default browser, it will only open in Europe

Microsoft announced on the Dev Channel (Build 23531) on Friday (25) an update that will allow Windows 11 to respect users’ default browser choice.

The change, which is currently limited to European Economic Area countries (the European Union and the European Free Trade Association), comes after several criticisms of the system opening links directly in Edge, ignoring the default settings.

This means that in these areas, users will no longer be “redirected” to Edge every time they click on a widget or search result in the Start menu. In addition to granting users the right to choose, this change comes a month after Redmond’s company became the target of an antitrust investigation in the EU.

Other changes in build 23531

In addition to the change that will affect Windows system components in EEA countries, build 23531 also brings some changes and improvements such as: Reintroducing the taskbar search experience when hovering over the box.

To do this, right-click on the Taskbar, select “Taskbar Settings” and choose your preferred experience.

There have also been fixes for issues that caused Explorer.exe to crash (in safe mode and when closing the process) and performance improvements when switching between different pages in Task Manager. Microsoft did not reveal whether the rule for using the default browser to open links will be extended to other countries in the future.