Not content with forcing all Windows 11 users to have the Edge browser installed, Microsoft is now going to open all links clicked in Outlook or Teams using Edge by default.
As The Verge reports, it doesn't matter what your default browser is set to, Outlook and Teams will soon ignore user preference and use Edge instead. Thankfully, there is a workaround which is explained below.
The change in policy was first reported by users on Reddit after a message appeared in the Microsoft 365 admin center detailing the change. The message says:
"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 in a single view showing the opened link side-by-side with the email it came from. The web link will open in Microsoft Edge as a new tab, and the email will open next to it in the Edge sidebar, so users can easily reference the opened link and the email side-by-side without switching back and forth between apps."
The change is rolling out to organizations within the next 30 days and Microsoft 365 users will gradually be switched over to this new link-opening policy. The same change is coming to Teams, but Microsoft will announce when that happens separately.
As you'd expect, forcing the use of Edge has made many people angry. It's understandable when you consider Microsoft published a blog post back in March that opened with the sentence, "Today we’re reaffirming our long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience and to empower developers to take advantage of our open platform." That post goes on to state that Microsoft will "ensure people who use Windows are in control of changes to their pins and their defaults."
Two months later and Windows is starting to look less open and control is being taken away from users. What changed, Microsoft?
Anyone not happy about this change can, with a bit of work, tweak the options in Outlook to revert to using their default browser for links (hat tip to Neowin). Microsoft buried the option in Advanced settings, so navigate to File > Options > Advanced > Link handling and use the drop-down box to change the switch to "Default Browser."