These changes are only applicable to users in the EEA. For those outside the region, Windows will continue to function as it is!
The changes to Windows for DMA-compliance include:
- You can now uninstall Edge and Bing web search using the built-in settings. Earlier, the option was greyed out.
- Third-party web search application developers can now utilize the Windows search box in the taskbar using the instructions provided by Microsoft and choose any web browser to show results from the web.
- Microsoft will no longer sign-in users to Edge, Bing, and Microsoft Start services during the initial Windows setup experience.
- Data collected about the functioning of non-Microsoft apps, primarily bug detection and its effects on the OS, from Windows PCs will not be used for competitive purposes.
- Microsoft, from now on, will need explicit user consent before combining data from the OS and other sources. It will also deliver new consent screens where required.
About 20 years ago, Microsoft was found guilty and convicted, because they forced their browser on their users, driving out competitors by abusing their de facto monopoly on PC operating systems. These days, they are doing the exact same thing again, just on an even broader base. I don’t even understand how this verdict took so long.
It makes perfect sense once you understand that regulators have only cared about stock prices for the last 40 years. The EU coming down on giant corporations is a new development
Only because we don’t have any tech giants, we’ve slept on it so we get the money this way and try to slow down others until we figure shit out.
You can see that we don’t care about consumer that much in markets we’re strong.
It’s just lobbyism
Lol this is asinine.
America let their tech companies get too big to the point that they are all behaving ridiculously anti-competitively, and you think the solution is that the EU should have let their companies get so big that they behave anti-competitively?
This is the EU steeping in to clean up America’s mess when it spills over to them.
Your simplification of the issues to steer this into your preferred narrative and conclusion is also asinine. The EU power broker’s hands weren’t getting their share of the bribes and are punishing orgs that didnt realize that the corruption they take part in is everywhere. Corruption in EU countries is old world corruption and is just part of the system bottom to top. Nobody has clean hands.
The fucking sad thing is, when they did it 20 years ago Internet Explorer became the gold standard. Now they are pushing super hard, annoying users, killing competition and they have a tiny market share. They aren’t getting anywhere, just being assholes because they don’t know how not to be.
Edge is just a Chromium build with more manageability for enterprise use.
Which is a problem, because Chromium is becoming a monopoly too. Safari and Firefox have a small marketshare and Google is abusing their power
Microsoft now permits
The benevolence! Letting people do what they want with their purchased software. wow!
You don’t buy the software. You buy a license to use their software.
I have no idea why you’re being downvoted because you’re right. You don’t really own hardly any of the software you buy. You don’t buy the software, you buy a license to use it in almost all commercial cases. It would be financial suicide for companies to revoke those licenses in most cases, but it still is what it is.
Yeah and with Apple, it feels like we buy a license to use their hardware.
So where are the people saying edge couldn’t be uninstalled because it’s a core part of the system that other element depended upon. I swear I have seen this answer on every reddit post about uninstalling edge, yet Microsoft show its absolutely possible (although only in Europe, because dependencies don’t work the same in Europe 😂).
I’m sure it’s just uninstalling the browser chrome. The backend is woven into too many MS products to be completely removed.
Who puts up with this shit anyway? Go buy an Apple. You can eat it while installing Linux.
These changes are only applicable to users in the EEA. For those outside the region, Windows will continue to function as it is!
You misspelled “Windows will continue to be as fucked up as it is!”
Not for me :)
Not OP but okay, I’ll bite: What exactly do you prefer about being locked into the MS ecosystem as opposed to being allowed to choose, including the choice to keep that very ecosystem?
Nothing. I just live in the EU and am very happy about that fact. ¯\_༼ᴼل͜ᴼ༽_/¯
This ought to happen everywhere. Either I’m the admin on my machine or I’m not. If it’s not, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll tolerate a Windows machine.
PSA: Once this rolls out into the actual downloadable Windows builds, everyone should be able to do this by reinstalling Windows.
European Economic Area PCs
As noted above, some functionality is only available in the EEA. Windows uses the region chosen by the customer during device setup to identify if the PC is in the EEA. Once chosen in device setup, the region used for DMA compliance can only be changed by resetting the PC.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm…
Can we get THIS fucking comment on the front page please? Outstanding work, friend! Sincere thanks!
Great! Now please also make manufacturers give us the option to uninstall/change webview & other such services on android devices.
But you can change the webview
This need to be applied to smartphones
Imagine phones coming with a clean Android with the ability to install Google Play Services like a normal app 😌.
And documention to port other operating systems or new Android versions.
You just described GrapheneOS, by far the best mobile operating system IMO
Does this EU’s Digital Markets Act also applies for Android and all the preinstalled apps by Google and the phone manufacturer?
It does as per the law. I don’t know whether Google is compliant as of yet.
It applies to all ‘Gatekeepers’, including Google.
For anyone looking for something like that right now - https://grapheneos.org/
GrapheneOS user here, compared to my stock android pixel it’s night and day, no sense of my phone spying on me.
I use almost entirely FOSS on the graphene one, I now do most of my daily phone activities on the graphene, and use the stock primarily for work (I refuse to taint the graphene phone just so I can do my job).
The installation was extremely simplistic compared to other custom android versions I’ve run. It was literally: plug in phone, click button, phone restarted itself, clicked another button, done.
More like LineageOS because Graphene is only available on very specific, hyper-expensive devices. Or just expensive if you want one that is already out of support.
Not really. Almost all the google pixels are supported. You do not need to get the pro versions if you don’t want to.
Normal, non-pro are expensive AF too. The non-pro Pixel 7 is around $500. The latest ones I remember seeing for $300 and under are Pixel 5.
If you buy them second hand they are not expensive, I bought recently a Pixel 6 in backmarket for 200€ and it works perfectly.
6 barely has any Graphene support left - normal updates until next year and extended ones for just a few more.
In Graphene Os site, it says it has 3 years of support left. Normally my phones don’t last that long. So it’s fine for me, but obviouly I would recommend going for a newer Pixel version if you find a good deal. Edit: typo.
Just stop using microsoft. Why would you sign into the cloud to use your local computer. Actually own your hardware with Linux or BSD. Do I own it or do they?
