Just got this right before midnight in my MS Admin app alerts. If you dont configure the policy, in September it defaults to opening web links in Edge regardless of OS default browser setting.
I woke up this morning to One Drive doing its usual thing being HOT GARBAGE, now I’m going to bed with Teams becoming HOT GARBAGE.
Full Excerpt:
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Web links from Microsoft Teams chats to open in Microsoft Edge; Teams chat will open side-by-side with link
MC669480
Plan for change
Published date: August 21, 2023
Affected services
Microsoft Teams
Tag
MAJOR UPDATEADMIN IMPACTNEW FEATUREUSER IMPACT
The Microsoft Teams desktop app for Windows will open web links from Teams chats in Microsoft Edge to enable a new web and chat side-by-side experience.
By opening web links in Edge, users will be able to see those links side-by-side with their Teams chats—web links will open as new browser tabs and the Teams chats will open next to them in the Edge sidebar. This new, single-view Teams experience in Edge is designed to minimize switching between windows and to help users stay in the flow of work while referencing web links.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 126334.
This change to use Edge to open web links from Teams chats follows a similar, previously announced change in the Outlook for Windows app. Customers impacted by this change in Outlook were notified via MC541626, MC545904, or MC548092.
Admin controls are available as detailed below.
Read more about how we’re optimizing the experience between Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Edge:
What’s New in Teams | Microsoft Inspire 2023 Notes:
This change does not affect a device’s default browser setting in Windows.
This only affects commercial users signed into Teams with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) accounts.
The policy described in the following section configures which browser is used to open web links for both Teams (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email), or, if you did not receive an Outlook for Windows app Message center notification, this policy will only apply to Teams (chat).
When will this affect your organization:
Timing:
Microsoft Teams desktop app for Windows: This change will start rolling out late September.
Outlook for Windows: Roll out in progress. If this change affects your users, you will have received either MC541626, MC545904, or MC548092, and can refer to them for specific timing.
Note: Depending on your Outlook for Windows update channel, you may experience the change in Teams first. Action:
Use the Choose which browser opens web links policy to configure which browser will be used to open web links and to set whether users will be able to make changes to which browser opens web links in both the Teams desktop app for Windows (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email).
If you did not receive a message center notification for the Outlook for Windows app (email), then the setting only applies to Teams (chat).
If you did receive a message center notification for the Outlook for Windows app (email), then the setting applies to both Teams (chat) and Outlook for Windows app (email). You will not be able to manage each app individually using this policy. If you’ve previously configured this policy for the Outlook for Windows app and wish to maintain that configuration, no action is required.
Note: There are no Microsoft 365 subscription restrictions in using this policy to configure which browser opens web links in Teams.
Use of the policy to manage the change in the Outlook for Windows app depends on your Microsoft 365 subscription. If you received the Outlook for Windows app Message center notification, please refer to MC541626, MC545904, or MC548092 for details on whether configuring this policy will apply.
If you have not configured the policy, or wish to change it, find the details below. How this will affect your organization:
Links from Teams chats will open based on the browser configuration in the Choose which browser opens web links policy. If no configuration is selected using the Choose which browser opens web links policy, web links from Teams chats will open in Microsoft Edge.
Only links set to open via a web browser are affected. Links that are set to open in a client app or within Teams itself will continue to do so. User experiences will vary by policy configuration; please see the next section.
You can manage this experience at any time. What you need to do to prepare:
If you’ve previously configured this policy for the Outlook for Windows app and wish to maintain that configuration, no action is required.
Use the Choose which browser opens web links policy to configure which default browser will be used to open web links and to set whether users will be able to manage which browser opens web links in both Teams (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email). You will not be able to manage each app individually using this policy.
The Choose which browser opens web links policy is available using the Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 (formerly the Office Cloud Policy Service) or as part of the Administrative Templates for Microsoft 365 Apps.
Enabled: Configures which browser opens web links from the Teams desktop app for Windows (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email):
Microsoft Edge
Web links will open side-by-side with users’ chat or email in Edge.
Default browser
Users will not be able to change this from the respective apps’ settings menus.
Disabled/Unconfigured: Web links from the Teams desktop app for Windows (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email) will open in Microsoft Edge.
Web links will open side-by-side with users’ chat or email in Edge.
Users can manage the browser change: Via the in-product notifications explaining the side-by-side experience.
At any time via the Teams settings menu: Settings > Files and links > Link open preferences
Note: If you want to manage this change for your entire organization so that Teams only opens web links using the device’s system default browser, you will need to configure the policy to Enabled and select Default browser.
Additional Information
Read more about how we’re optimizing the experience between Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Edge with this feature in our blog: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/02/16/discover-new-ways-to-multitask-with-microsoft-365-and-edge/
We always value feedback and questions from our customers. Please feel free to submit either feedback or questions via Message Center.
A browser so good they have to force their captive audience to use it.
It’s like the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft 22 years ago. They are still trying to push their browser.
When you visit the Chrome website in edge, a pop up in the top right tells you to use edge instead. Imagine going to sign up for a new ISP and your current one injecting a popup telling you they’re better. I have no idea how MS are getting away with it
I know you can get chrome or fox by other means, but I always use Edge to download alternative browsers.
I enjoy seeing Microsoft grovel.
Yes, Google is better. Yup.
It’s not the same as 22 years ago. What is the difference? Well, Microsoft tricks you into making Edge your default browser with every bigger update.
Windows 10: “oh uuuuh (sweats profusely) hi user-senpai. I made this cute browser, it’s called edge and you would make me so happy if you used it.”
Me: (looks for “No” button", sighs and then clicks “Later” button on the bottom left)
Windows 10: “oh noooo (sobs uncontrollably) can you at least import your bookmarks and stuff into edge”
Me: (clicks whatever button because that window too lacks a clear “No” button)
Windows 10: “Yaaaay! Thank you user-senpaaaaai! I promise that one day you’ll have yes to Edge! I will make it the greatest browser ever!”
I’m in the process to migrate to Void Linux because of this and other issues.
EDIT: I got 3 downvotes so far and i want to say… i see you. I got the hint. The text lacks a Yandere vibe that Microsoft has going on 😄.
Jumped to Kubuntu around the time Win 10 came out and haven’t looked back. Gaming on Linux has come quite far too :)
I do really like KDE. It’s the first thing i install on my machines after Void. I am looking for some inspiration to really rice out KDE.
Why Void Linux specifically?
Probably that Microsoft Windows in its current form makes you want to crawl into a void.
Recommendation by my gf mostly. But i can see where she comes from. The OS is very lean and runit is easy to deal with.
A disadvantage i see though is the lack of Calamares installer and XBPS. The void-installer isn’t that intuitive, however it’s not as tough as installing Arch manually (SomeOrdinaryGamers made a fun video about it). XBPS isn’t as intuitive as APT either but apparently it’s much more solid and has less potential to break the Void install. Some packages are also not available in the void repos because they are either merged into other packages for simplicity or they are simply not available. In the latter case i recommend using flatpak.
Another caveat is that while Void has an established userbase, there are so much more resources for Ubuntu and other distros. So Void isn’t exactly good for a computer novice like my mom. Void has a good website with resources for common use-cases, so you’re not left to your own devices entirely.
Once you’re done setting up Void, you have a very snappy system. It boots fast and uses little resources. It uses 800 megabytes of RAM on my GPD Win 2, 200 of which think are from KDE. It is lean! It is so lean and it boots fast! It has a properly working standby mode which is not a given anymore these days! I can open up my GPD and it powers up reliably! Back on Windows ifound myself mashing the power button!
I installed it on another laptop, specifically a Sony VAIO Flip 15. I wanted to test it first but the VAIO didn’t like booting twice from an external drive. HOLY CRAP, BLUETOOTH IS WORKING AGAIN! I KNEW WINDOWS BROKE BLUETOOTH! FUCK THEIR “muh pci powerup failed” EXCUSE! Although i had to replace the Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 with my Intel Wireless AC-7260 because Atheros cards are iffy on Linux in general. I had the Intel one laying around because i was trying to ix the Bluetooth issue caused by a Windows Update.
And Void can be loud! Both of my systems i installed Void on are louder now! Holy crap! Not sure whether it’s specifically because of Void but damn! I love an OS that makes the very core stuff that i don’t usually think about work better! Except for some WiFi slowdown on my Win 2 but a config tweak later it’s gone. And the Atheros thing.
I initially thought Windows gaming on Linux was still not good, however it turned out that a few games i have don’t like being just plonked on a system without a proper install. There is a caveat remaining but that isn’t exclusive to Void and that is some weirdness when it comes to old physical Windows games. Multi-CD games aren’t properly supported and some CDs aren’t working too well for some reason. For example CD 2 of SimCity 4 isn’t read correctly.
Thank you! Nice thorough explanation.
If you didn’t like it, you shouldn’t have let your laptop walk around dressed so provocatively
Microsoft got screwed by antitrust officials for only putting it’s browsers in new windows installs 20 years ago. Antitrust enforcement is a fucking joke in this country now.
Ironically, the larger market share of macOS (compared to back then), mobile platforms, and the fact that Chrome is now the #1 browser means there’s a much weaker case for there being a monopoly now.
“Got screwed” is an over-exaggeration. They lost. Eventually. Only after having crushed Netscape’s hopes and dreams. And the settlement was pitiful.
IE was still king after the antitrust lawsuit. It took decades to de-throne it.
Which country are we talking?
This shit makes me want to quit IT. Technology is no longer helping humans. Technology is controlled by capitalist cunts.
I’m with you. I’m so completely and utterly over working in IT. The industry used to be full of companies founded by people who loved tech, and were staffed by kids who grew up on Lego and Logo. Today these same businesses are owned by investors who don’t know the first thing about technology, and staffed by grown up kids who were told by their guidance counselor that IT was a high paying field. Nobody knows their ass from a hole in the ground anymore, and getting anyone remotely competent on the phone is like pulling teeth. If I could bail on this industry tomorrow and build picnic tables I’d never look back.
Same. Streaming services reinvented cable. The open web is increasingly hidden behind paywalls. Instead of having the sum of all human knowledge at your fingertips, you have 5 billion tiny creators begging you to sign up for their goat-fat candle-making course on udacity. You can’t look in any direction without advertisers stabbing you in the eyes and claiming that it’s their god-given right to scream their snake-oil sales pitch directly into your brain; and if you install an ad blocker you’re the one stealing food out of content creators mouths, not the ~5 people who control 50 % of the total wealth of humanity…
I’m out of software the first chance I get. I hate it. Tech is no longer fun and inventive, it’s exploitative and designed to milk the most money out of every user.
I don’t even particularly care about the capitalist part. I just find that the new things are no longer fun, but terrifying and causing anxiety about the future. I used to love keeping up with the newest stuff, but I already feel like a Luddite after the last few years
I joined an IT career out of excitement for technology and gaming, but most that I see about both those industries makes me lose hope for the future.
I did. I switched to social work and am starting my 2nd year in grad school. It’s not just you, my dude.
Don’t quit IT. Combine your abilities with other IT people and make new things that create competition.
MS definitely didn’t get in trouble for this in the past and this time it’s going to work out
Back then the anti-trust laws were actually somewhat enforced. Nowadays, not so much.
They won’t. Those lawsuits took years, and MS have been practicing the same shady business model for years since. It only got worse. Probably since the EU (and other governing bodies) are busy fighting Google, Apple and Facebook.
They are not busy. EU is big and has a lot of personnel.
Fucking Microsoft, they could right now be the beacon of the Internet right now, had they chosen Firefox as the base of their browser.
I’d actually be using it, as a counter to Chrome.
But no, of course they had to go with chromium and just become another dicksucker.
of course they had to go with chromium and just become another dicksucker.
Interesting take to put Google higher on the list of fuckery corps than Microsoft, but what goes around comes around in different ways. I’d make a guess it’s more likely they’re just doing what they do, going full embrace and extend on chromium to dilute Chrome’s dominance. Unfortunately they determined that means going full Internet Explorer with their integration into the OS (which they get to play technicality over with antitrust concerns since their ‘apps’ are what default it rather than an underlying OS ‘default’ that this effectively deprecates).
Cheers.
Today, Google is definitely worse than MS for the web.
Didn’t this very same issue result in MS being called a monopoly all those years ago. And now they are right back at it again.
For the last X number of years, I’ve listened to people proclaim how Microsoft has changed, they’re not the '90s Microsoft anymore. They make things open source! They’re putting Linux in Windows now instead of trying to murder Linux! They’re not doing Internet Explorer things anymore! You old Slashdot readers are stuck in the past!
'90s Microsoft sends their regards.
Embrace, extend. What’s the next one? Oh yeah, extinguish.
I used Edge during beta and upon release. It’s a decent browser. But Microsoft started adding their bloat to it and now just throws it in my face every chance they get. I no longer use Edge as a result.
So glad I don’t have to use Windows at work
I get to use a Mac for work. But they still require me to use Chrome, so…
Mac is the same. Linux is the only non bloated OS
Macs don’t force you to use a specific browser. That was my point. This isn’t really about bloatware.
Fuck Teams. It’s the shittiest experience out of all the options. Discord is better, that’s how bad it is.
Every iteration of Microsoft IM clients has gotten so close to being usable to have some executive mess it up with bloat and then abandon it for something new that is missing even basic features and start the cycle all over again.
Be glad you didn’t use Skyoe for business. One of the shiitest experiences of my career. Comparitively teams is a godsend.
They’re the same thing more or less. “Skype for Business” was really just a renaming of Microsoft Lync which was just the on prem version of MS Teams. With the launch of Office 365 they axed MS Lync in favor of a SaaS version which is what MS Teams is. Ultimately all of Microsofts IM clients suck, even the ones they buy like how they screwed up Skype after buying it. Two things you never use from Microsoft, their web browsers, and their chat services.
Curious but what if I remove Edge from the machine?
deleted by creator
Consumers: “My PC?”
Microsocialist: “Our PC”
You’re going to want to remove other parts of Windows as well, such as Windows Explorer, the Win32 runtime, the kernel, etc.
(In other words, install Linux.)
Already do, this was a hypothetical.
Good luck trying to open it on Edge when it’s blocked from installing via policy
Got affected by this, and the Edge literally showed a notification bar on how to disable this (as a user). So, slightly annoying but not too big of an issue as users can opt out right away.
I would be so frustrated working for a company like Microsoft when forced to write software “features” like this.
The business of M$ just fucking sucks
But why is this the same people that brought us the windows terminal, azure, vscode and improvements to python? 🤦🏻♂️
