Sorry, Microsoft: your latest attempt to get people to switch over to Edge in Windows 11 is crossing a line

• Microsoft has a new plan to persuade Chrome addicts to use Edge more
• A planned pop-up is only hidden in testing right now, though
• It may never be enabled, even in preview builds of Windows 11 – and I hope that’s the case

Microsoft is apparently testing another way to drive Edge adoption and attempt to cajole Chrome users into switching to its browser in Windows 11.

Windows Latest reports that, in a new preview build of Windows 11 (in the Canary channel), there’s some work hidden in the background pertaining to a new campaign to promote Edge.

This is targeting those who use Google’s Chrome browser with a pop-up to get them to pin Edge to the taskbar when they close Microsoft’s browser. Specifically, it’s aimed at those who use Chrome a lot, and Edge a little (obviously you have to use Edge a bit to be exiting the browser in order to be shown the nag screen).

Windows Latest observes that one of the hidden flags – these are just lurking in the background at the moment, and not activated yet, even in testing – is for ‘pin Edge when you close the browser’ (so with it pinned permanently to the taskbar, you’re more likely to come back and use it).

But the shadier move here is another flag which is for ‘msPinningCampaignChromeUsageGreaterThan90Trigger’ – and the key bit here is that the trigger for the pop-up appearing is if the Windows 11 user’s Chrome usage is greater than 90 (meaning 90%.)

This means that those who run Edge more – i.e., those who are using Chrome less than 90% of the time – won’t see this pop-up. The reason why, presumably, is because Microsoft doesn’t want to annoy people who already use its web browser a fair chunk of the time.

However, those who almost exclusively run with Chrome (90% of the time, or more) will see this nag prompt – and the big question here is how might Microsoft quantify whether any given person’s Chrome usage is 90% or more?

Analysis: Microsoft needs to tread carefully

We can’t jump to any conclusions about Microsoft snooping on folks on the basis of some flags hidden in testing – all of this remains theoretical and speculation. But this does appear to indicate that some sort of measurement is being mulled – and how would Microsoft gauge a heavy Chrome user? The obvious assumption is that it must be through some kind of telemetry (data collection).

And regardless of the answer to this question, or indeed whether this feature is ever enabled, this kind of flag is not going to do anything to assuage the fears of those who believe Microsoft is ‘spying’ on them with Windows 11.

And there’s a good deal of paranoia around that issue, because Microsoft does, of course, utilize some telemetry with Windows 11. (Some of which may be justified, and some of which can be turned off – though notably not all of it, not unless you go to considerable lengths).

So, while we know that Microsoft collects some data on Windows 11 users, glimpses of the inner workings of the operating system laid bare like this aren’t going to help the company’s reputation. In my opinion, the software giant needs to tread very carefully in areas like this – and gauging browser usage to determine whether or not an Edge pop-up is shown (to Chrome fans) is crossing a line.

It might not ever happen – and I hope it doesn’t, because this really isn’t a path Microsoft needs to be going any further down. With some of the pop-ups and various suggestions in Windows 11, Microsoft can argue that it’s helping the user in some way – prompting them to make a backup might be useful in some scenarios, for example. But in this case, Microsoft is only helping itself (and Edge).

From a broader perspective, we don’t need any more nagging to use the Edge browser anyway. There’s already far too much of this kind of activity going on in Windows 11 – which I feel is counterproductive anyway.

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