Set Up Microsoft Edge Correctly … Whether You Use It Or Not

Microsoft Edge is the default web browser and PDF reader in Windows 11, and a modern and capable successor to the Internet Explorer browser of yesteryear. It's built on the same Chromium web platform that Google uses for Chrome, and it integrates more deeply with Windows and Microsoft online services--most notably Copilot--than other browsers. But Microsoft Edge is also a vector for some of the worst behaviors in Windows 11. For this reason, it's important to configure Microsoft Edge correctly, whether you expect to use it regularly or not.
The problem with Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is the most important in-box app included with Windows 11 because web browsers are, by far, the most often-used app on our PCs. But they're also the gateway to two massive and lucrative markets that Microsoft strategically wants to a play a major role in. The first is paid subscription services, like those for productivity (Microsoft 365), storage (OneDrive), gaming (Xbox Game Pass) AI (Copilot Pro), and others. The second is online advertising: Microsoft, like Amazon, Google, and Meta, tracks our activities online, harvests our personal data, and sells it to third-parties so they can exploit you.

These markets are so important to Microsoft that it configures Windows 11 to ensure that you are exposed to its offering on both sides of this strategy as often as possible. It promotes its paid services throughout the system, via full-screen advertisements, banner notifications, in-app promotions, and more. And it uses dark patterns, deceptive designs, and helpful-sounding suggestions to coerce users to use Microsoft Edge and then to configure it in ways that are optimal for its own needs. And when users make specific configuration choices that contradict Microsoft's best interests, Windows 11 will go so far as to ignore those choices to ensure you are exposed to tracking and Microsoft online advertising as frequently as possible.

More specifically, Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge secretly engage in the following activities:

Microsoft Edge tracks you online. Microsoft Edge tracks your online activities so Microsoft can harvest your personal data, target you with advertising, and sell that information to other data brokers and online advertisers that will expand this abuse.

Microsoft Edge ignores your default browser choice. If you configure another web browser as the default, Microsoft Edge will still appear when you perform certain actions in Windows 11, ignoring your choice. These instances include clicking a widget or news feed article in Widgets, clicking a web link in Search highlights, clicking a web link in the Get Help in-box app, and using Copilot in Windows 11.

Microsoft Edge ignores your browser customizations. If you customize certain Microsoft Edge features, it will harass you to change them back to the defaults that benefit Microsoft. This happens when you change the default search engine away from Bing, disable certain features in the de...