A new report commissioned by Mozilla and published on July 14, 2026, has found that Microsoft Edge continues to insert promotional banners into the Google Chrome download page on Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems outside the European Economic Area. The most intrusive example: a banner stating “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome” appears above the page’s own content when a user deliberately navigates to download the rival browser.

The report, titled Over the Edge 2.0, was authored by deceptive-interface specialist Harry Brignull and technology and design ethicist Cennydd Bowles. Their tests on clean Windows installations across the United States, India, and the United Kingdom documented multiple tactics that steer users away from Chrome, Firefox, and other alternatives. These practices stand in stark contrast to the browser-choice experience inside the EEA, where Microsoft has already removed many of the same prompts to comply with the Digital Markets Act.

What the report actually found

Brignull and Bowles did not simply review settings menus—they replicated the real-world journey of someone trying to switch browsers on a new PC. What they captured reveals how Edge applies layers of persuasion at critical moments.

A banner on Google’s doorstep

The most startling finding is a banner that Edge injects when it detects the user has landed on Google’s Chrome download page. The message—“Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft”—sits above the content Google served, visually associating Microsoft’s pitch with the page the user opened to get a rival browser. The researchers classified this as a mix of visual interference, disguised advertising, and trick wording, techniques known to exploit cognitive biases rather than support an informed choice.

This is not a warning about malware or an expired certificate. The browser is using privileged knowledge of the page being visited to place an advertisement where it can easily be mistaken for genuine information. The Register first documented a similar Edge-controlled banner back in 2023, and it still appeared in the 2026 study.

Bing searches that become retention pitches

When a user opens Bing in Edge and searches for, say, “download Firefox,” the search engine does not simply return the expected link. In some regions, Bing places a large panel promoting Edge at the top of the results, often larger than a conventional search ad and sometimes including a bespoke browser comparison. While paid placement against a competitor’s name is standard in search advertising, the researchers argue this goes further because it is not clearly offered as an advertising unit available to other bidders, but as a platform-controlled insertion.

The regional double standard

None of these patterns appeared when Windows 10 or Windows 11 was configured for a country inside the European Economic Area. There, Microsoft already removed unique Edge banners in Bing results and allowed users to uninstall the browser through standard Windows mechanisms. That change was announced in November 2023 and rolled out in 2024 as part of the company’s DMA compliance. Microsoft explicitly identified the kind of Edge promotions seen outside Europe as behavior it would eliminate for EEA users.

What this means is unambiguous: the company knows how to ship Windows without these interventions. It just chooses not to outside the regulated market.

Why it matters for everyday users—and IT admins

At a glance, a single banner or an oversized Bing promotion might seem trivial. Experienced users will scroll past it. But on a new consumer PC, where Edge and Bing are the first route to the web, persistent, multi-stage friction can change behavior.

The report models effective browser choice as three steps: download an alternative, set it as the default, and continue using it without repeated interference. Interruptions at any stage may be small individually, but together they turn a straightforward preference into a sequence of decisions that must be constantly defended. For someone who is not tech-savvy, distinguishing an operating-system warning from a marketing pitch is not always obvious.

For IT administrators, the download-stage theater is largely avoidable. Browsers can be deployed directly through Microsoft Intune, Configuration Manager, WinGet, or an enterprise software portal. Default browser settings can be enforced via Group Policy or MDM. This doesn’t solve the underlying competition problem, but it removes the uncertainty for managed devices. That said, the same administrators should be aware that if a user later searches for a browser on Bing from the company portal, they may still encounter these Edge promotions.

How we got here

Microsoft has long maintained that Windows users can download, install, and select any default browser they want. That is technically true. But the road to downloading and keeping that alternative has been littered with pop-ups, comparisons, and reversals for years.

Timeline of nudges

  • October 2021: Windows 11 launched with a complex process for changing the default browser, requiring users to set defaults by file type instead of a single switch. Microsoft later simplified this after public pushback.
  • 2023: The Register reported that Edge was inserting a “Trusted” badge and promotional banner on the Chrome download page.
  • November 2023: Microsoft announced its DMA compliance plan, promising EEA users would be able to uninstall Edge, preserve default browser choices through updates, and see fewer Edge promotions.
  • 2024: Those DMA changes began rolling out in the EEA.
  • July 2026: The Over the Edge 2.0 report confirms that outside the EEA, the pre-DMA behavior persists.

Market context

The report also highlights StatCounter estimates showing Edge’s share on Windows PCs grew by 6.7 percentage points in the UK between early 2024 and early 2026, while Chrome lost roughly 5 points. Globally, the picture puts Chrome at around 73%, Edge at 12.4%, and Firefox at 9.3%. These are web-traffic estimates, not installed-base numbers, and Edge has genuine competitive strengths—it’s Chromium-based, tightly integrated with Microsoft 365, and includes strong enterprise security features. But the concern is that share gains may be partly attributable to the very design patterns the report criticizes.

What you can do now

If you’re a home user

  • Understand what you’re seeing. The banner on Google’s Chrome download page is not a security warning or an official notification from Google. It’s a marketing message placed there by Edge. You can safely ignore it.
  • Go directly to the source. Instead of searching for “download Chrome,” type the known URL (e.g., google.com/chrome) into the address bar. Or search from a browser that is not Edge.
  • Download with another tool. Use the Microsoft Store or Winget (via PowerShell) to install your preferred browser; these methods bypass the web-based download journey where Edge can intervene.
  • Consider your region. If you are not in the EEA, changing your Windows region to an EEA country may alter the browser-choice experience, but such a change can affect other services (Store, Cortana, etc.) and is not officially recommended.

If you’re an IT administrator

  • Deploy browsers through managed channels. Use Intune, Configuration Manager, Winget, or a packaged installer to push Chrome, Firefox, or another browser directly to endpoints. This completely avoids the consumer download flow.
  • Set defaults via policy. Use the Set a default associations configuration file policy (for Windows 10) or the newer DefaultAssociationsConfiguration (Windows 11) to enforce file and protocol defaults. For Edge, the DefaultBrowserSettingEnabled policy can control whether Edge checks if it is the default.
  • Test the user experience. On a test machine, simulate what happens when a user searches for a competitor in Bing from Edge. Check whether links from Windows Search or other Microsoft surfaces honor the configured default browser.
  • Audit Edge’s first-run experience. Use the HideFirstRunExperience and PromotionalTabsEnabled policies to suppress prompts that might interfere with your chosen browser.

What to watch next

Mozilla’s report is explicitly aimed at regulators outside the EEA. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the U.S. Department of Justice have both shown interest in browser competition. If they conclude that Microsoft’s design patterns are anticompetitive, similar restrictions could follow elsewhere.

Microsoft is unlikely to voluntarily extend its DMA-style changes globally. The company’s public position emphasizes that users always have a choice, and it may point to Edge’s security and productivity benefits as justifications for its recommendations. But the geographic split is now a matter of public record: the same Windows codebase behaves dramatically differently depending on whether a regulator is watching. The question after Over the Edge 2.0 is whether pressure from the report—and the users who experience these prompts every day—will close the gap.