"Use Edge" campaign continues, disses Chrome and Firefox
Micrsoft's campaign to get Windows 10 users to give Microsoft Edge a try at least continues, this time stating that Edge is safer than the other two browsers.
First reported by Reddit user illCodeYouABrain, the new campaign tries to pursuade users on Microsoft's newest operating system Windows 10 that using Microsoft Edge is safer than other browsers.
This is not the first time that Microsoft is notifying users about the benefits of trying out Microsoft Edge. The company notified Windows 10 users previously that Edge was doing better battery-wise than Google Chrome.
Windows 10 users receive the message as an overlay popup that hovers over the Edge icon in the Windows 10 taskbar.
It states: 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 smaller difference.
The data is taken from a test conducted by NSS Labs recently which saw Edge block 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%.
Side note: NSS Labs has a long standing relationship with Microsoft. According to NSS Labs, the research was independent and not sponsored by Microsoft.
The popup notification is part of Microsoft's "Windows Tips for Windows 10" campaign which launched in early November.
According to Microsoft -- via Venture Beat -- the tips are created to "provide people with quick, easy information that can help them enhance their Windows 10 experience".
Microsoft Edge is not doing as well as Microsoft hoped it would. If you check NetMarketShare for instance, you will notice that it has a overall usage share of about 5% and is not gaining any traction. While the data covers all operating systems, it is fair to say that the current performance does not meet Microsoft's expectations for its new browser.
It is clear that the way these notifcations are pushed to Windows 10 devices is controversial.
Windows 10 users who run third-party browsers like Firefox or Chrome have done so deliberately. They have downloaded and installed the browser, and maybe pinned it to the taskbar on top of that.
It seems unlikely that Microsoft is going to convince many to switch over to Microsoft Edge with these notifications.
The main issue that users may have with the popups is not that they are displayed in first place, but that there is no clear option to block them on the system.
I suppose that there are users out there who are interested in the data, especially since it highlights areas of interest such as battery life or security.
Disable the popups
Windows 10 users who are not interested in the notifications can turn them off in the following way:
- Use the keyboard shortcut 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.
Tips: Click here to find out how to turn off Lock Screen ads on Windows 10, and here to turn off the Microsoft Consumer Experience.
Now You: What's your take on the latest campaign?
I honestly don’t see the problem with this. There are far more serious issues.
I know, it’s not like Google never try to make Microsoft look bad. It’s all pretty run of the mill behaviour for people that are in direct competition.
It’s annoying.
The problem is the message repeats – I already have seen the message many times now.
When Microsoft implements something like this without any way to for the user to say “don’t show me this again” it is abusive. Please don’t try to apologize that it isn’t intentional because of course the exact behavior would have been discussed and decided by developers and marketing.
@consumer: I agree. I would like to have the ability to say “don’t show me this again.” I’ve seen the message many times and don’t care to keep seeing it. It’s not because it comes form Microsoft; it’s’ because it’s annoying.
It only took MS a year to fix Edge so you could select a monitor to run it on in a dual monitor scenario.
At least its not a paper clip popping up with advice anymore….
Either those are region-dependant and not shown in Germany or the “trick” is to remove edge from the taskbar :)
Memo to self: great idea for Ford campaign.
“A Ford is 21% safer than a Tesla because pedestrians can hear them coming”.
There are videos showing people taking chunks out of the new Ford cars, and they are doing it with their bare hands.
lol
This one is totally the winner of this thread!
Its funny, that in the late-90s/early 21st century we were plagued with spammy pop-ups and adware software being installed without our consent. Then various governments stepped in with rules and laws about the practice, which help decrease the number of incidents then before. But now, we have Microsoft who has decided to go back to the old practice, in turn violating some of these anti-spam laws in place.
Lets just call a spade a spade.. Windows 10 is nothing more than Spy/Mal/Adware rolled into an entire operating system. The Edge, Office 2016 and Windows 10 Upgrade pop-ups are spam, they were unknowingly installed on your operating system without explicit consent. The forced installing of default apps in Windows 10 is adware, cause those are being installed without consent or are reinstalled/changed every so often (usually though one of the milestone upgrades) again without consent. And you bet your ass, those app companies are paying a premium for that “ad space”. And also, the law (some countries, not all) strictly states they are to offer a easy to find to opt-out of the ads and data collection, which they’ve never fully and properly given to the users. And opt-out means.. they are fully opted-out.. no data collection, no nothing.
But Microsoft likes to think they’re EULA is legal binding.. Its not. Majority of EULAs today are nothing more than out-of-date, copy-n-pasted, unenforceable rabble that uses a lot of legal context to make it sound like a legally binding document. A check-mark does NOT constituent a legal agreement between you and them, cause it could’ve been anyone who clicked it. And as we all know IP nor your hardware is not a legal representation of you as an individual.
Now, I’ll go as far to argue the point.. If you are one of the Windows 10 free-ium bandwagoner.. Sorry, but as the old saying goes, “You are the product” and this is cost “free” software and/or services. No different than use Google and other like services out there, who make their money back through scrapping and raping your personal data while force feeding you shitty content.
And what makes matters even worse, if you were to buy a full retail cost version of Windows 10, it still the same garbage version of Windows 10 with all the pop-ups and data collection. And how Microsoft is trying to justify this.. Is that yes, the current costs of Windows 10 is way lower than Windows 7 and 8 were and reason being, because they are now using the dumb excuse, they need to “subsidize” the low costs, so they NEED to do the data collection and spam.
Linux is free and I am pretty sure I am not the product. But yeah I h8 M$ and their bs and win10.
Makes me glad to be Windows 10-proof. Let browser makers fight it out between themselves, not on my computer !
Edge is such a half baked browser that anyone that switches because of this would probably switch back after 10 minutes of using it
Dear Microsoft,
Get around to adding more extensions (uBlock Origin to name one) and I’ll consider trying Edge again. Until then, it’s a no go for me and probably a lot of other potential users.
And also, please make it *more**more**more accessible to assistive technology users. If you do, I’ll happly use it to also earn your Bing rewards.
Thank you.
Well I turned off tips and stuff right after I installed Win 10. I also removed Edge icon from taskbar at the same time. I have tried it a few times, I always seem let down with it freezing, or unable to properly load a web page. Not a huge fan of Chrome either. Actually IE 11 is also good with phishing detection. It’s really not going to sway many to try Edge. People use what they use and nothing sways them to something new unless its obvious that it’s much better. I guess one advantage Edge has over Chrome is it’s small market share won’t make it a target for malware. Chrome has that target now.
I didn’t check the details like, at all, but isn’t this “security” aspect based on Safebrowsing lists in Firefox and Chrome ? How is it set up in Edge ? Is every website you visit sent to a Microsoft server that checks for “safety” ? What are the privacy guards, if any ?
Because sending my entire browsing history to Microsoft period wouldn’t be worth a 21% better safebrowsing feature.
Funny anecdote of the day: One of my customers send me an email telling that he have hard time to connect to Outlook.com receiving a message like “Hummm an error happened”. I asked what browser do you use ? The answer: “Edge”, So I told him try again after “resetting” Edge (With the long procedure to do) and if it work you will have to reset Edge from time to time or for a definitive solution use another browser and you will have no longer troubles.
Edge mess sometime with the SSL protocol (another bug) which make request fail and the generic error message appear.
Edge from Micro$oft have hard time to connect to Outlook.com but any other browsers work fine.
Am I missing something? I’ve never gotten any notifications of this sort, and I have Edge in the taskbar.
Does it activate if there’s inactivity in Edge for a period of time?
No you did not miss anythin,
you were saved from spam, until you read this article ;-)
The irony is that Edge has more serious vulnerabilities than both Chrome and Firefox, which is just ridiculously bad for a “brand new” browser that only runs on a “modern” OS.
Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nqBd7zmg6grVBEws_UPXFBIdZT_0ISjIaHPK4cJvjII/edit#gid=0
The irony is you post a diss at MS from a Google docs site that proves nothing other than Edge has a lower number of incidents, on the whole, than the other browsers.
If I wasn’t an avid Chrome user, you’d have convinced me to go Edge, hahaha…
Do they really expect anyone to take Edge seriously, after its disastrous initial release? It’s still no much different than that. Edge reminds me of the basic web browser functionality included in some programs, like Download Managers, email clients etc.
If for some reason I need to test a webpage with another browser, I’ll go to IE – never Edge.
This browser is ridiculous you can’t even disable JavaScript. Just go download Firefox or the alternatives and download NoScript (Firefox/Gecko-based).
“Windows 10 users who run third-party browsers like Firefox or Chrome have done so deliberately.”
Not sure if this is always true for the Chrome users.
Anyway the way Microsoft campaigns is a shame.
Remember what the web was like when Microsoft finally destroyed their arch enemy Netscape and obtained a monopoly on web browsers for a short time. Internet Explorer was literally stagnant for years. Features like PNG support were just left in a broken state, because “Why fix it?”, and let’s not even get into the issues with security. (one word, ActiveX)
For this reason alone, I would shy away from a Microsoft browser.
I don’t think the ‘web’ existed in the days when Netscape was around. It was still just referred to as the ‘internet’. I could be wrong. When was the term ‘web’ invented? When did it become commonly used to distinguish itself from the original internet, or ‘net?
Creative Labs had a ‘browser’ too. Used it for a while. They owned or made soundcards. They were in competition with Ad Lib and maybe Turtle Beach.
Apple has now become that which it most despised. There are no mp3 players anymore, just iPods and iTunes. Oh how I remember the Apple people squealing like stuck pigs about how Microsoft was a monopoly.
There were also Commodore and Amiga people. The list goes on…..
A sneaky something calling someone else not trustworthy. The something may just put it where the sun does not shine.
My own Birmingham Security Labs (BSLabs) confirms MS is at least 21% better in trumpeting Edge than others. MS marketing heads learned actually from other campaigns that creating your own facts, statistics, etc…, is the hot new thing.
That’s why this ghacks view:
“It seems unlikely that Microsoft is going to convince many to switch over to Microsoft Edge with these notifications.”
seems rather over-optimistic to me.
For the best Win10 experience … leave it in the store!
Microsoft quote: “provide people with quick, easy information that can help them enhance their Windows 10 experience”.
I love how these corporate mouth-pieces can lie directly to your face while making it sound like they are your best friends. What this guy really meant was: “We want to get you using as many Microsoft products as possible, so we will use our operating system to advertize our other products.”
I’m using Edge more and more every day simply because it’s blazingly fast loading… much more so than my default Chrome browser and Firefox the slowest of them all. Those pop up advisory messages about Edge being superior to other browsers, I did receive once or twice but not since then. They didn’t bother me anyway.
Edge will catch on eventually because it’s simply faster. Gone are the days of “don’t use internet explorer, it’s not safe”.
Have you done these speed comparisons, using the exact same type and number of installed extensions on all browsers?
Guess it makes sense that Edge is more secure. Who would target a browser with such low user numbers? Obviously this bears out as Chrome get’s targeted the most much like Internet Explorer in its hey day. My own personal experience is more about performance, rendering correctly, and doing what I need a browser to do. I would say security is in the back of my mind, but pretty much believe all browsers work hard to prevent security issues. I would say Microsoft had a better argument with battery life and users than security. Although I think Chrome wins many over because it runs on many platforms. Sure, if all you have is Windows 10 devices, Edge probably can work for you.
I really hate the edge browser. It is buggy, we have problems with it playing various content and until it is the best at day to day tasks and as stable as Chrome and Firefox I’m just not interested. Thanks for the tip on disabling MicroSpam’s notifications. I am going to do that now and continue to use Chrome. Windows 10 was worth the upgrade from 8 in my view but Microsoft are giving themselves a very bad name by constantly nagging us users to do things we have no intention of doing, My PC, my software choices … including OS!
I gave Edge a try. Didn’t like it. Thanks for helping me stop the annoying popups.
Who cares if the web browser is whatever % more safer, it’s also 100% more intrusive.
Sending your complete browsing history to M$ yea… no thanks.
Also that’s what “Real Time” Anti Virus programs are for….
Edge is the most unsafe browser in Thailand. it using junta compromised root certificate to spy on Thai people that opposed to them. All ISPs in Thailand cooperated to them launching “man in the middle attack” with fake certificates and using root ca approved by Microsoft as a tool. TOR it the best browser IMO
holy shit miss trump,,,,,,,