Mozilla CEO blasts Microsoft over Windows 10 defaults

Sometimes we see great progress, where consumer products respect individuals and their choices.

Windows 10 will feature a desktop version of its intelligent personal assistant Cortana, which is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri, and a China-only assistant called “XiaoIce”, which boasts 37 million Chinese users.

The Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft, Satya Nadella, had said in a memo to all Nigerian employees in late June that the company needed to make some “tough choices” in areas that were not working.

Join us at GrowthBeat where thought leaders from the biggest brands will share winning growth strategies on August 17-18 in San Francisco. While older models of Internet Explorer had tons of browser options cluttering up the sides of the screen, Edge has noticeably fewer. To Beard, it doesn’t want Microsoft to “roll back the clock” to that era.

I am writing to you about a very disturbing aspect of Windows 10. Beard also stated that Microsoft appears to want to make customers use a certain browser than giving them the freedom of choosing it themselves.

Click the … button to open the menu and then click Settings. “Unfortunately this didn’t result in any meaningful change”, added a somber Beard. However, [he] complains…that it’s “confusing, hard to navigate and easy to get lost”, [and makes] a lightly veiled threat of anti-trust action. “You remain in full control of your default experiences, while reducing some of the unwanted noise that multiple prompts can bring”. We are aware of isolated delays affecting some customers looking to upgrade through our partners, Tencent and Qihoo 360.

We presume Mozilla will not be sending out any cakes this time round.

Users can make Firefox or Chrome their default again.

Mozilla announced they are rolling out support materials and a tutorial video to help guide everyone through the process of preserving their choices on Windows 10. And in China, Microsoft’s move to launch the new operating system has included an unprecedented effort to partner with local companies and allow users to upgrade via local partners Tencent, Qihoo 360, Baidu and Lenovo.

According to a Gizmodo report, Windows 10 user experience manager Mohammed Samji is fond of saying: “We’re making pizza for 1.5 billion people”.

Such re-branding is vital if Microsoft wants to escape its tumultuous past, but Microsoft also has the potential to remain relevant in the future.

Edge works just like you’d expect and, based on its performance so far, it could give the likes of Chrome and Firefox a run for their money.