microsoft: Microsoft’s browser strategy for Windows 11 seems to be working, here’s how – Times of India

Microsoft has surpassed one of its major rivals, Apple, when it comes to browsers on desktop PCs. According to the latest report from web analytics service StatCounter, Microsoft browser Edge is now the second most used desktop web browser worldwide, second to Google Chrome. As per the report, Microsoft Edge is now used on 9.65% of desktops worldwide, just marginally ahead of Apple’s Safari with a 9.57% market share. The data also reveals that Google Chrome still holds the largest market share with 67.26% of users. Edge has seen significant growth since the launch of the new Windows OS.
In February, we reported that Edge was closing in on Safari and with the data from March shared by StatCounter. It appears that Edge has gained from the falling market share of Mozilla Firefox, which has dropped from 9.18 per cent to 7.57 per cent. Although Edge now holds the second-highest market share, it is still way behind Google Chrome. It cannot be denied that Microsoft’s move to revamp its browser using Chromium is paying off.
With the launch of Windows 11, Microsoft changed the way users assign default apps. On the new operating system, users have to set default apps according to the type of file or link type instead of a single switch. This means that for changing the default browser, users had to change the default file type for FTP, HTTPS, HTTP, HTML, HTM, PDF, SHTML, SVG, WEBP, XHT and XHTML. However, the tech giant made it easier to change the default web browser with the latest update. Google openly criticised Microsoft for this.
The Windows 11 build 22000.593, however, makes it easier for users to change their default browser. The operating system now gets a dedicated button in the control panel that allows users to pick the default browser of their choice. The change was first spotted by reverse engineer Rafael Rivera in Windows 11 build 22509 in the dev channel. It is an optional update.