Mozilla's 100-day recheck finds Windows still routing links past the user's default browser

Taken together, Mozilla's findings describe a default-browser setting that some Windows code paths check and others skip ^[6][9]. File types are a second gap. Mozilla says PDF and SVG files stay assigned to Edge after a user picks another browser ^[7]. Setup is a third. The Windows 10 message "You're almost done setting up your PC" uses wording Mozilla calls tricky to pull people off the default they chose ^[5]. Mozilla lists all three of those outside the European Economic Area ^[5][6][7].

The EEA is the comparison case. Mozilla says fairer designs are already live there because the Digital Markets Act forced them ^[4]. "In Europe, the DMA is the only thing that has moved Microsoft," Mozilla wrote ^[20]. The comparison is imperfect, because three of the six patterns on Mozilla's list reach EEA users ^[15]. Edge is still pre-pinned to the taskbar there ^[8]. Mozilla says that "seems to directly violate" Microsoft's own "principled approach to app pinning and app defaults" ^[8].

The other two EEA patterns sit on Copilot and Windows Backup ^[16]. Mozilla calls those new surfaces, writing that Microsoft "is using new surfaces like Copilot and the migration to Windows 11 to further undermine user choice" ^[19]. The evidence fits a simple model. The DMA fixed the code paths Microsoft was made to fix, and the newer surfaces Mozilla tested did not get the same treatment. Mozilla's summary was blunter: "Most of the 2024 patterns are still there. The 2026 patterns are worse" ^[18].

Mozilla's first ask is that Microsoft ship the EEA designs to every Windows user ^[11]. On Mozilla's own list, that change alone would leave Copilot's side panel, Backup restores and Edge's taskbar pin as they are, because all three already reach Europe ^[15]. Its other asks cover them, including one a policy's author should not need to hear: apply Microsoft's own 2023 app pinning principles to Edge ^[11].

The underlying report holds up as evidence. Its authors, deceptive-design specialists Harry Brignull and Cennydd Bowles, published their evidence for anyone to analyze ^[1][2]. Where a link opens can be rechecked on any test machine. The 100-day update is a campaign document. Mozilla commissioned the report and says it has since stepped up public pressure on Microsoft ^[1][12]. The post describes the talks with Microsoft only in Mozilla's words and does not name the Windows builds Mozilla retested ^[14]. For the findings to describe a particular fleet, that fleet would have to match Mozilla's builds and region, since Windows already behaves differently inside and outside the EEA ^[4].

I think Mozilla's claim that only regulation moves Microsoft holds, in a narrow form. Mozilla says it shared the report with Microsoft and discussed the issues it raised ^[3]. Its conclusion, about an operating system it says runs on more than a billion machines, is that "Microsoft will respect user choice only when it is forced to" ^[17][13]. On this record, published evidence produced no change Mozilla could find in 100 days, and the DMA produced some ^[4][18]. By the same record, the DMA's reach stops short of the two newest surfaces on the list ^[16][9][10].