Microsoft confirmed that Edge updates may install the Copilot app on Windows devices. The company calls the app “Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows”.
Microsoft added a new known issue on the Windows 11 version 23H2 dashboard. It confirms an issue that was first observed in March 2023.
Some Windows users noticed that Microsoft was installing a Copilot app on their devices. This app appeared after Microsoft Edge updates, including the update to Microsoft Edge 123 at the end of March 2024.
While sporting the Copilot name, it did not power the Copilot feature of the Windows operating system.
How to check if the app is installed: Select Start > Settings > Apps >Installed Apps, and search for Copilot.
Microsoft confirms the bug
Today, Microsoft confirmed that the installation of the application is a bug. The company writes:
Updates to Edge browser version 123.0.2420.65, released on March 28, 2024 and later, might incorrectly install a new package (MSIX) called ‘Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows’ on Windows devices. Resulting from this, the Microsoft Copilot app might appear in the Installed apps in Settings menu.
Microsoft says that the app “does not execute any code or process” and that it “does not acquire, analyze, or transmit device or environment data in any capacity”.
What it does: Microsoft explains that the app is “intended to prepare some Windows devices for future Windows Copilot enablement” and that it is not intended for all devices.
Microsoft plans to remove the Microsoft Copilot app from Windows devices it is not intended for.
The company does not define “devices that it is intended for”, which makes it difficult to figure out if it was installed by error on a particular device. The only hint Microsoft provides is that it is not intended for most Windows Server devices.
How Microsoft plans to rectify the issue: Microsoft plans to release an update for Microsoft Edge to resolve the issue.
In the past 20 or so years, browsers have grown significantly. From tools used solely to display webpages to general purpose tools. Yes, you can still open webpages in modern browsers, but that is not all.
Nowadays, browsers are used to watch media streams, play highly demanding games, or do your homework. It comes as no surprise that RAM usage of browser processes has gone up significantly as well.
Browsers can easily use 1 gigabyte of RAM or more these days. Much of it depends on use. If you open a single plain text website only, you will never cross the threshold. Open a stream on Twitch, play a game in another tab, and have dozens or hundreds of tabs open, and you reach that threshold easily.
Most Chromium-based browsers may display memory usage of individual tabs. This is a recent feature addition. There is also the option to press Shift-Esc to display the built-in Task Manager, which reveals memory usage of individual browser components.
Microsoft Edge, like other Chromium-based browsers, supports a sleeping tabs feature next to that. The main idea of it is to reduce memory use by putting inactive tabs into sleep mode. Microsoft says that the feature saves an average of 39.1 MB per tab.
Microsoft Edge: control memory usage
Microsoft is working on another feature to tame the browser’s memory usage. The new resource controls option gives users control over the maximum amount of RAM that Edge may use.
It is disabled by default, which means that Edge may use as much RAM as available. Once activated, options are provided to limit RAM usage always or when playing PC games.
The new preference is found under Settings > System and performance > Resource controls.
Once enabled, you may use a slider to set a RAM limit in gigabyte. The lowest amount selectable is 1 gigabyte, the highest the available RAM of the system. You may increase or decrease the limit in 1 gigabyte steps.
When you enable the new feature, RAM usage is displayed in Browser Essentials under performance.
You need to run the latest Microsoft Edge Canary release and start the browser with the parameter –enable-features=msEdgeResourceControlsRamLimiter to get access to it.
Here is what happens when Microsoft Edge reaches the designated RAM limit: it puts tabs to sleep in order to reduce Edge’s RAM use.
Closing Words
It is too early to say if the feature will ever make it into Edge stable. If it does, it will likely remain a niche feature. While it may help some users free up RAM for other activities on the PC, most may prefer to close Edge instead, if they do not use the browser actively at the time.
Usefulness depends on how you use your system and Edge. If you use Edge all the time, you may benefit from it. There are downsides, on the other hand. Edge puts tabs to sleep and you get no say in the matter. If you need access to those tabs, you need to wake them up again.
All in all, Edge’s new RAM usage feature is a niche feature. It might grow to something more in organizations and for some edge cases.
Now You: what is your take on limiting RAM usage in browsers? (via Leopeva)
Super Drag & Drop is a new experimental feature of the Microsoft Edge browser. The main idea behind the feature is to improve the opening of links and running web searches in Edge.
Once enabled in Edge, it allows you to drag and drop links just a short distance to open them in the browser. Similarly, dragging & dropping text runs a search for the text.
How to enable Super Drag & Drop in Microsoft Edge
Here is how you enable the feature in Microsoft Edge. Note that the feature is integrate in Microsoft Edge 122 or newer. You may check the version by selecting Menu > Help & Feedback > About Microsoft Edge.
Load edge://flags/#edge-super-drag-drop in the address bar of the web browser.
Set the status of the experimental feature to Enabled.
Restart Microsoft Edge.
There is one additional step required to enable the feature in Microsoft Edge:
Load edge://settings/appearance in the Edge browser’s address bar.
Scroll down on the page that opens until you come to the Super Drag and Drop section.
Toggle “Enable Super Drag and Drop” on the page to turn the feature on.
Super Drag & Drop is now enabled in the browser and you may start using it. Note that there is a “Configure Super Drag and Drop” option on the settings page to configure it.
The only two options provided at the moment let you select the open mode and the website block list. Links and searches open in a background tab by default. You can change that to foreground tab in the options.
The block list prevents Super Drag and Drop from functioning on websites that you add to the list.
Using the feature in Edge
Usage of the drag and drop feature is simple. Whenever you encounter a link in Microsoft Edge, you may drag and drop it just a short distance to load it in a new tab in the browser. It is handy especially for users who do not use middle-clicks or Shift-clicks to open links in new tabs.
Current versions of Edge support dropping links onto the browser’s tab bar to open them. This feature reduces the distance the mouse has to travel to open links.
There is no option to launch multiple links that way. This ability reminds me of Snap Links, a browser extension for Firefox and other browsers. It allowed you to draw rectangles around links to open them all at once in the browser.
Anyway, Edge’s feature is limited to dragging and dropping a single link to launch it. If you want to open multiple links, you need to repeat this for each of the links individually.
The second option that the feature introduces is to run searches for text that you drag and drop. Highlight text in the browser and then use drag & drop to run a search for that text.
This feature uses the default search engine of the browser. It is refreshing that Microsoft did not hardcode it to use Bing. Clearly, this should be the norm, but in this day and age, it is often not. A program like MSEdgeRedirect helps with that under Windows.
Closing Words
Super Drag & Drop is an experimental feature that is entirely optional at this point. It may speed up the opening of links and searching for selected text in the browser. Users who use keyboard shortcuts or middle-clicks won’t benefit from it as much as users who do not.
Now You: how do you open links in your browser of choice?
A recent Microsoft Edge update changes the browser’s sidebar functionality to the worse. Up until now, Edge users could disable the Copilot button that triggers the sidebar entirely. Now, when Edge users disable Copilot’s icon and thus the sidebar icon in the Edge toolbar, they get another button.
This one, a generic sidebar button, cannot be removed anymore. There is no option in the preferences to hide the button. Whether that is a case of “introduce a feature and add an option to customize it later on” remains to be seen.
Edge users may also notice that the Copilot button activates the AI chat interface now on hover. This behavior cannot be turned off either.
Note that there is a workaround which requires making a change to the Windows Registry.
Update: Microsoft added a new preference in Edge 122 that allows you to disable the sidebar button. Load edge://settings/sidebar to get there and toggle “show sidebar button” to off to remove it from the toolbar of the browser.
The new Edge sidebar button
If you disable Copilot in Microsoft Edge, you get the new Edge sidebar button instead. The fastest way to disable Copilot in Edge is to load edge://settings/sidebar in the browser’s address bar to load the Customize Sidebar preferences.
Select Copilot on the page to display the preferences for the AI. There you find the “Show Copilot” option to turn it on or off.
Good news is that the generic sidebar button does not open on hover. Bad news is, that there is no switch in the preferences to disable it.
How to hide the new Edge sidebar button
If you do not use Copilot nor the sidebar in Microsoft Edge, then you may follow the steps below to turn off the generic sidebar button in Edge after you have disabled Copilot.
First, to disable Startup Boost:
Open Microsoft Edge.
Select Menu > Settings > System and Performance.
Turn off Startup Boost.
Close Microsoft Edge.
Then, add a new value to the Registry to turn off the sidebar icon:
Open the Start Menu on the Windows system.
Type regedit.exe and select the Registry Editor result.
Confirm the UAC prompt by selecting “yes”.
Use the hierarchical structure on the left side to go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
If a key does not exist along the way, create it with a right-click on the previous key and the selection of New > Key from the context menu.
Right-click on Edge and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
Name it HubsSidebarEnabled.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart the system.
Note: you can also kill the explorer.exe process and restart it in the Task Manager.
There is no sidebar icon anymore in Microsoft Edge on the next start of the web browser.
At least for a year, some Chrome users reported that Edge imported data from their browser automatically. Back in May 2023, user Cerevox reported the issue on the official Microsoft Community website.
Cerevox claimed that Edge imported bookmarks and passwords from Chrome automatically. In November, another user claimed that Edge imported favorites and browser data from Chrome. Both said that Edge’s auto-import feature was turned off on their system.
Tom Warren, Senior Editor at The Verge, published an article today about the issue. He experienced the issue first hand according to the article:
Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update.
A post on Twitter by Tom Warren reveals that it was the KB5034204 update. It is uncertain if the update has anything to do with the issue. I ran two tests locally and could not replicate the issue.
Warren says that the Edge feature that powers the auto-import of Chrome data was never turned on by him. He decided to check on another laptop and experienced the issue there as well. After installation of the update and the obligatory restart, Edge opened with all tabs from Chrome.
Warren could not replicate the issue on any other device he tested though, which makes the issue puzzling.
There are two main explanations for this: it is a bug or it is a feature that is either in testing or rolling out to everyone over time.
Checking Microsoft Edge’s auto-import feature
Microsoft Edge includes a setting to import browsing data from Chrome automatically. The feature is off by default. Edge users may verify this by loading edge://settings/profiles/importBrowsingData/editImportConsent in the browser’s address bar.
If you see “Turn On” next to “Import browser data from Google Chrome on each launch” on the page, then it is disabled. Since turning on does not necessarily mean launching Edge, it is easy to accidentally launch Edge unless you have precautions in place.
There is a chance that the feature may turn itself on automatically. Things like these happened in the past and there is a good chance that they will happen in the future again.
The auto-import feature supports Google Chrome only. Even other Chromium-based browsers are not supported. The main idea behind the feature is to make the use of Edge more comfortable for Chrome users. It may be useful if you use both browsers.
This import is local-only according to Microsoft. However, Edge users who sign-in using a Microsoft account and enable sync in Edge will have the data synced to the Microsoft cloud. From there, it is synced back to any device on which the Edge feature is turned on.
Closing Words
Warren said that he noticed a window appearing and disappearing after installation of the update. He did not have time to notice anything or react to it.
It is quite possible that the auto import from Chrome to Edge is a bug. It is also perfectly reasonable to assume that this is being rolled out to all Edge users on Windows. The thing that makes me think it is the former is that the auto-import feature in Edge was turned off.
Microsoft Edge is not a terrible browser, but Microsoft is still pushing users around as if it was Internet Explorer in its prime. It is time that companies accept a “no” the first time.
The EU considers Edge to be insignificant in the world of browser, which is why Edge is not considered a gatekeeper at this stage. Windows on the other hand is a gatekeeper.
In closing, there is little that users can do if a bug or forced feature changes things on their devices. Complete removal of the offending app, in this case Edge, may be an option. This will soon be easier for users from the EU.
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) will come into force in March 2024. The EU identified several products and services as gatekeepers. These fall under the new regulation.
One of the main goals is to level the playing field and avoid abuses of power. Six companies and 22 services and products are gatekeepers according to the EU.
The EU opened four market investigations into Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising and iMessage to determine if these services will be added to the list of gatekeepers.
A Bloomberg report now claims that all four won’t be considered gatekeepers by the European Union. The report cites “unnamed officials at the EU as “people familiar with the matter” as its source.
According to Bloomberg, the four mentioned services are “dominant enough to be hit by the regulation”. While some of the services are popular in other regions of the world, Apple’s iMessage or Microsoft’s Bing are popular choices in the United States, they are not dominant enough in the European Union.
Microsoft Bing, for instance, has a market share of less than 4% in Europe according to Statcounter. Similarly, Microsoft’s Edge web browser has a market share of less than 6% in Europe according to the company.
While these stats are not 100% accurate, they make the argument for adding these services to the list of gatekeepers difficult.
The final verdict is expected in February 2024.
No free pass for Microsoft
Microsoft’s Windows operating system and its LinkedIn social network are gatekeepers, according to the EU.
Microsoft announced changes that it plans to make available to users from the European Union and European Economic Area exclusively in the coming months.
The changes give users control over certain features of the operating system. They include the ability to remove Microsoft Edge and Bing Search in Windows, among other changes.
Microsoft’s Windows operating system ships with Microsoft Edge as the default browser and Bing Search included. Some links open only in Edge by default, but this is changing soon for users from the EU.
To sum it up, Windows users from the EU and EEA will gain control over Edge and Bing, even though both services are not (likely) considered gatekeepers.
The EU’s target is Windows. Specifically, Microsoft’s use of the operating system to favor its services, Bing Search and Edge are just two examples, over others.
Would Microsoft’s web browser stand where it is standing right now market share wise, if not for the integration and pushing in Windows?
Closing Words
Some Google and Meta products and services are also considered gatekeepers. Meta announced this week that it will give EU users control over data sharing between some of its services.
Microsoft is testing changes currently that give users from many European countries more control over Windows 11. There are workarounds already for users from other regions to uninstall Edge without tools or commands.
Microsoft plans to introduce the change in the first quarter of 2024 in Windows 11. Two of the main improvements let users remove Microsoft Edge and Bing Search from the operating system.
Microsoft Edge is the default browser of Windows 11. Bing Search is used to populate, some would say pollute, search results with web results.
While there have been ways to deal with the two until now, both required some technical know-how or the right tools. AppBuster, for instance, is a free program to remove many locked apps from Windows 11.
Windows users who prefer a different browser use Microsoft Edge to download these browsers. What happens if Microsoft Edge is uninstalled prior to installing any other browser? Are you stranded then, left without any chance to install an Internet browser? Let’s find out.
How to uninstall Microsoft Edge
Once the change lands, users with administrative rights may remove Microsoft Edge from the system.
Tip: even if you live in a region that is not supported by Microsoft in regards to the change, you may still add the functionality to your system. It involves changing the region to that of a European country.
While you may do so manually, you may also use the open source tool MSEdgeRedirect to to it for you. Just enable Europe Mode in the app when you run it. The app makes the required changes in the background. You need to restart the system once before the changes take effect.
Removing Edge is done in Settings > Apps > Installed Apps on Windows 11. Just search for Microsoft Edge, activate the three-dots menu next to its entry and select the uninstall option from the menu.
Edge is removed after you confirm by selecting uninstall again. Note that there may be a small warning prompt that explains that removing Edge may impact apps and widgets that depend on the browser.
Windows 11 without a browser
With Microsoft Edge gone, you may notice a few changes right away. The first and most important one is that you may not have a web browser installed anymore.
Microsoft Edge is the default browser. Removing it removes the only browser from the system, unless you install a different browser first.
What happens when you try to open Internet links in that case? Windows launches the Microsoft Store page of Microsoft Edge so that you may install it again.
In other words: you are not in a cul-de-sac when you uninstall Edge without having access to another browser.
The better option is to use Edge to install a different browser first before removing it.
There is one situation, at the least, which puts you in a dead end after all. Windows has a hard limit on the number of devices associated with an account. If you happen to run into this limit after uninstalling Edge, you won’t be able to install any other browser
The thing is, you may install Microsoft Edge even if you hit the account limit. This may be because it was installed previously on the device, or because it is not affected by the imposed limitation.
If you have another device at hand, you may remove older devices from the Microsoft account to unlock the functionality. Still, it is definitely a nuisance if you hit the limit.
Other things to note
Some links may still require Microsoft Edge to open, at least in the current state of the feature. The “learn about this picture” link for instance, refuses to open in any browser but Edge, even if Edge is not installed and another browser is set as the default.
This may be because of the current state of development. It is unclear if these link will require Edge no matter what once they roll out to stable versions of Windows.
All in all, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft is going to tackle these issues. The most obvious option would be to allow them to load in the default browser, even if it it is not Edge. Whether that is going to happen remains to be seen, however.
Microsoft Edge 120 is the latest version of Microsoft’s web browser. Released this week, it is mostly a security update that addresses issues in Chromium and Edge itself.
What Microsoft doesn’t reveal in the release notes is that Edge 120 comes with a new Telemetry module. While it lists it under new policies, it does not provide information about it on the page.
Problem is: this new Telemetry component is enabled by default on Windows devices. It records third-party searches that users make when using Edge. Third-party searches are searches done using any search engine except Microsoft Bing.
Edge collects search data
The new policy, called Edge3PSerpTelemetryEnabled, is enabled by Microsoft. Microsoft describes it in the following way:
Edge3P Telemetry in Microsoft Edge captures the searches user does on third party search providers without identifying the person or the device and captures only if the user has consented to this collection of data. User can turn off the collection at any time in the browser settings.
In other words: Edge collects third-party search data on Windows. Microsoft notes that it only captures data if the user has given consent. However, Microsoft notes as well that the feature is enabled if the policy is enabled or not configured.
It is unclear what type of consent users have to give before the search data is collected.
How to stop Edge from sending search data to Microsoft
Microsoft Edge users have up to three options to deal with the collection of search data in Edge:
Disable the Telemetry collecting in Edge itself.
Configure a specific Edge policy using the Group Policy Editor.
Make the same change in the Windows Registry.
Disable Telemetry in Edge
Here is how that is done:
Open Microsoft Edge.
Load edge://settings/privacy in the browser’s address bar.
Scroll down until you come to the Search and service improvement section.
Toggle “Help improve Microsoft products by sending the results from searches on the web”.
While you are at it, check other settings on the page, e.g. under personalization & advertising, optional diagnostic data or security.
Group Policy and Registry
You need to download and install the Microsoft Edge administrative template before you can configure policies using the Group Policy Editor. You find the latest policy template download and instructions here.
Note also that the Group Policy Editor is not available in Windows Home editions.
Open the Group Policy Editor. You may do so with a tap on Start, typing gpedit.msc and pressing Enter on the keyboard.
Go to Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge.
Find “Edge 3P SERP Telemetry Enabled”.
Double-click on the policy.
Change its state to Disabled.
Close the Group Policy Editor.
Restart the Windows device.
Here is how you make the change using the Registry:
