Is there a way to stop W10 from resetting default applications?

On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 09:33:25 -0500, Mayayana wrote:

"mechanic" wrote

| But I don't recall hearing anyone say anything good
| about Edge, so I'm curious why you like it so much.
|
|


Twice I asked. Twice you posted a link with no
explanation. I'll assume that you really haven't
given it much thought and just arbitrarily "picked
a team".

I picked a site that listed the plus points for Edge; clearly I
could have listed them in a post without a link, but I thought the
site would be easier to digest. No further explanation needed I
think.

"mechanic" wrote

|

|
| Twice I asked. Twice you posted a link with no
| explanation. I'll assume that you really haven't
| given it much thought and just arbitrarily "picked
| a team".
|
| I picked a site that listed the plus points for Edge; clearly I
| could have listed them in a post without a link, but I thought the
| site would be easier to digest. No further explanation needed I
| think.

Those were *really* your points? You haven't given
it any more thought that that? Then why are you so
hot on Edge? I don't get it. It's none of my business if
you like Edge, but you've been repeatedly telling everyone
else they should like Edge, so it seems reasonable to
ask why.

The page you linked is just superficial fluff. Social
media prattle. Searching on the author I could only find
what seem to be light, fluffy, bits, with a heavy social
media presence. One of those people that brings up
links to Facebook, Twitter, etc but no real links. Here's
a sample:

https://utkarshchhiber.tumblr.com/

He not only likes Edge. He also likes being silly, Friends TV
show, Eminem lyrics, close-ups of bikinis, sloppy, profane
use of language, and being a consumer... In other words,
he seems to be a normal college student. Hot diggetty.
The perfect person to offer us a cogent analysis of Edge, no?

Here's his "analysis" of Edge:

* No crashes. (Great. I don't remember the last time I saw
any browser crash.)

* UI is smooth comparatively. (Whatever that means.)

* The new settings page opens much faster. (Another
low bar rating. Firefox settings open instantly. What was
the problem with Edge before? Did it crash when you
tried to open the settings? Are there any programs with
notably slow settings windows? What the heck is he
talking about?)

* Fluent design (The return of Win7 Aero techno-kitsch.
Hardly a selling point. More like a distraction. Though I
suppose it might look good after being graphically starved
by the pseudo-futuristic blandness of Metro monotones.)

* Speed of opening (Yes, because it's already loaded.
All browsers open fast after the first load because they
leave libraries loaded. Microsoft just does that at boot to
make their bloatware seem zippy. [What? You had other
plans for that RAM?])

* Cortana (That's a good thing? Why? Because he doesn't
know how to use search? Why would anyone trust that
Cortana suggestions are not tainted by kickbacks or ads?
Comically, he actually says the Google version is better.
So he's listing Cortana as a selling point because it's not
only silly but also not very good.)

* Youtube loads fast (Does he mean loading the videos?
I'll have to take his word for that. Since I have DownloadHelper
in Firefox I've never actually seen a video load in a webpage
on my computer. I download them and play them as I like.)

I haven't actually seen any clear reasons from people
who *don't* like Edge, either, though I seem to remember
some people complaining that it couldn't handle some sites.
When I search there seem to be a lot of complaints about
it being susceptible to malware. Since it's not really a
browser but only a Win10 component, it's not easy to
assess it. For instance, Chrome is spyware. But Win10 is
also spyware. Edge IS Win10. Thus Edge is spyware. And
the guts of Edge are IE without all the IE-specific
goodies. Not an auspicious beginning. But I wonder if Edge's
failure might be mainly due to Google's Chrome integration
with their services and the sheer number of people using
gmail. I have no first-hand experience of Google services,
but I'd guess Google makes it easy to stay in their "silo".

As for the spyware, I read recently that Microsoft
did research for their new browser by popping up
questionaires to people using Chrome, along the lines of,
"Would you tell us why you like to use Chrome?"

I suppose for people who think it's normal that
Microsoft spy on their software usage, and who think
it's handy to have a blue cartoon of a wet-T-shirt
contest babe interrupt your browsing to tell you how
and what to think, maybe Edge does make sense.
It's all the snazzy idiocy of Siri without the steep price.

But that also brings up what may be the biggest
problem with Microsoft's recent direction: They said
themselves that Bing was meant for shopping. Cortana
is pitched as a consumer helper feature. (Which Indian
restaurant is best? Look, here's Cortana to tell us
before we even ask! We love you, Cortana.) Win10
is a service, infested with consumer research spyware.
None of that is a good development for people who
actually want to use their computer for something
other than buying entertainment.
I expect that from Google. Everything Google does
is aimed at spying on you and selling ads. What I'd
like to see from Microsoft is just decent software.
Instead they keep trying to cash in with Google's
M.O.

But if Cortana wants to party, that might be a
selling point. Who could resist a body like that,
festooned with glowing circuitry? Yowza! My skin
is tingling with 12v electrical excitement just thinking
about her.

https://www.halopedia.org/File:CortanaH4_render.jpg