Edge Annoyance in Firefox

selden · 03 Dec 2021

One workaround is to never logout from OWA.

The very first time you login to OWA while using a specific browser, it asks if you want to stay logged in. If you answer "yes", then whenever you access your organization's OWA page from that browser, it'll immediately open OWA and show your mail. If you have Teams open in a tab of that browser, that'll usually (but not always) open immediately, too, There'll be no login prompt and no extraneous junk shown by the O365 Web site. If you want to leave OWA, just close all of that browser's windows. (RMB the browser's icon in the Taskbar and select "close all windows".)

Of course, you should only do this on computers where you can secure your access to the computer itself.

I use Waterfox for this, with its Home page set to be OWA and Teams on a second tab. They're the only things I use Waterfox for, except for occasionally opening a work-related link. Any other links that I want to look at I copy and open in another browser: Firefox with the NoScript plugin. As a result, Waterfox acts much like a local installation of Outlook would, although with a somewhat different user interface.

W10 Tweaker · 03 Dec 2021

I tried loading Hotmail & Outlook.com on Vivaldi, I never saw this SPAM banner.

I then logged out, disabled all content blockers on Vivaldi for that tab, signed in again & logged off. No spam for me.

MisterEd · 03 Dec 2021

dalchina said:

Reportedly there's now a prompt to use Edge if you try to download Chrome... not tried that myself.
Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome - The Verge

Some years ago the EU fined MS for promoting the use of its browser...

I think you misunderstand this. Microsoft has every right to promote using Edge and years ago Internet Explorer. That was never in doubt. Microsoft first got in trouble for not letting manufacturers install an alternate browser. Back then it was Netscape. Note Microsoft's browser Internet Explorer even then would still be an option by the user in any case. The settlement by the EU would force Microsoft to give a choice to the computer user of what browser they wanted to use. Microsoft got fined by the EU by not complying with this.

The software giant has been fined €561 million ($731m) by European authorities for falling foul of previous antitrust settlement conditions.

The software giant breached a settlement that it signed with the European Commission in 2009, which mandated that it display a "browser choice" screen on all existing and new PCs in the region.

Microsoft fined $731m by EU in browser choice screw-up
Microsoft fined $731m by EU in browser choice screw-up | ZDNet

Right now Microsoft has Edge integrated into Windows for some of it functionality. That is why it is probably not wise to try to remove it entirely. However, there is really no need to worry about Edge because for normal Internet browsing we are free to use whatever browser we want. I normally use Firefox but at times need to use Edge or Chrome. BTW, I am more annoyed with having to keep Chrome around than with Edge.