I just got a new Windows Update that revolved around pushing me to use the new Edge Browser. The update also removed my default setting for browser and when a new URL opens, there's small text under Edge that tries to persuade you to use it over the other choices.<p>This level of insidious marketing is a pain, but more than that I'm struggling to understand why Microsoft wants me to use their browser so badly.<p>What's the motivation?
Power. A huge amount of work is done in the browser. If you control what browser people use then you control how they use it and how developers program for it.<p>In the late 90's and early 2000's Internet Explore basically defined web standards. Once Microsoft decided on a new feature it became a strong candidate to be a new standard. It didn't always become a standard but developers were force to adapt their web pages to make sure they worked properly on IE. They want that power back.
I was annoyed that it presents as just part of installing the new patches. If you don't cancel out of it, you'll end up with Edge instead of Chrome/Chromium. And of course, the procedure neglects to tell you that. I can imagine a lot of people falling for it.
I think the motivation is rather mundane: Software gets updated regularly (even if only for security fixes), so Microsoft prefers that people move to the "current" version as much as possible.
Still, they also supported Windows 7 for over ten years...
The motivation is money.<p>If you don't use Edge they won't be able to track the web sites you visit so they can sell your data to advertisers.<p>Google does it too with Chrome. That's why if you visit Google sites with a non-Chrome browser they will push you to use Chrome.