When Microsoft launched its Edge web browser, it used Windows to quickly push the usage share of the browser. One of Microsoft’s ways of doing so was to create artificial protocols in Windows that would open only in Edge.
Clicks on web searches in Start or news would always open in Edge, even if the browser was not the default browser on Windows.
The small tool MSEdgeRedirect was created to address this. The main idea was to redirect requests that Windows would push towards Edge to another browser.
There have not been any updates for over a year, but a new update just hit. Good news for users of the project, as it is improving the redirector in several ways.
Note: The open source program is still a beta officially. While it works well, you may run into bugs or issues using it. Also, Microsoft may change things and that may break functionality.
So, here is what is new in MSEdgeRedirect 0.8.0.0:
- The minimum supported system is now Windows 10. Windows 8 is no longer supported.
- Fixed Windows Spotlight, PDF file handling, some UWP apps no longer working in Service Mode.
- New AI-less Google Search results option.
- Improved news handler.
- Adds support for –from-ie-to-edge and bing.com/WS/redirect.
- Adds passthroughs for –user-data-dir and –win-session-start.
The update is a bug fix update for the most part that fixes some existing issues. If you use the tool already, you should upgrade to the latest version. That is, unless you still run Windows 8.1, as this is no longer supported. Oh, and Europe mode is still a thing, why not give it a try.
All in all, it is good to see that the project has not been discontinued.
Now You: do you use MSEdgeRedirect or have used the app in the past?
I’ve no need of this as I don’t “click things that open a browser”.
I open the browser of my choice first, then navigate to the content I want to see.
It’s refreshing for me to have Edge open once in a while; I can see how it compares with Firefox. As I’ve noted in previous posts, Firefox disappoints. Although it’s still my default browser, it’s a disappointment when Edge opens and I see how much I’m missing in speed and rendering. Deflect. Nice if it were a simple extension.
Thanks for the update!
When I attempted to install it on Windows 11 the last time Google prevented the installation on FF. To get around that problem I had to delete all Google’s Safe Browsing settings in about:config and there are a huge number of those.
After that it installed without any mishaps, but I wonder if the latest version of Firefox will reinstate them all. I haven’t checked and will have to remember to do that before installing the latest version of MSEdgeRedirect.
In any event I took great care to completely gut Edge so that if it does suddenly pop up without warning it won’t be able to copy much anymore, but I refuse to use it.
In the US, the customized excellent MIcrosoft weather widget detail information opens in EDGE even though my default is Chrome. However if I copy the widget detail information URL directly to Chrome, the detail personalized weather is perfectly presented, and widget is no longer needed.