Windows 10 Warns Chrome and Firefox Users About Battery Drain, Recommends Switching To Edge (venturebeat.com)

A month after Microsoft claimed that its Edge web browser is more power efficient than Google Chrome and Firefox, the company is now warning Windows 10 users about the same. VentureBeat reports: Microsoft has turned on a new set of Windows Tips that warn Windows 10 users that Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is draining their laptop's battery. The solution, according to the notification, is to use Microsoft Edge.In a statement to the publication, the company said: "These Windows Tips notifications were created to provide people with quick, easy information that can help them enhance their Windows 10 experience, including information that can help users extend battery life. That said, with Windows 10 you can easily choose the default browser and search engine of your choice."

Comments

'Enhancements'

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what would enhance my windows 10 experience? Allow me to disable driver-breaking updates.

Re:'Enhancements'

[Anonymous Coward]

Precisely. Using that same logic, they should suggest you uninstall windows and install Linux with just a shell. :)

And on Chromebook...

[Dan East]

And when you run Edge or Firefox on a Chromebook, Chrome OS warns.... Oh wait. You can't run 3rd party browsers at all under Google's Chrome OS.

Re:And on Chromebook...

[Anonymous Coward]

And when you run Edge or Firefox on a Chromebook, Chrome OS warns.... Oh wait. You can't run 3rd party browsers at all under Google's Chrome OS.

firefox runs just great on my chromebook, just install chrubuntu and it's just another linux box.

tell us about the os choices on your surface hardware

Re:And on Chromebook...

[Sax Russell 5449D29A]

It's about holding a dominant position in the computer OS markets and utilizing that to further entrench your dominance. The same applies for example to Google using their dominant position on the search engine markets to promote their own products at the expense of competitors' visibility in search results.

Re: And on Chromebook...

[Anonymous Coward]

Whether it's a steaming pile of diarrheatic human excrement... or not, is irrelevant. You should ignore its features and base your decisions on ethical point of views. Thst being said, what MS is doing is unethical. Ditch all MS products you can.

"Google works better with Chrome"

[Hardhead_7]

So what's the news? Google pushes you to download Chrome every time you visit their site.

Re:"Google works better with Chrome"

[shaitand]

Google doesn't have a monopoly on the desktop... hasn't been convicted of illegally using that monopoly to give a market advantage vs competitors including their browser. That would be apples to apples if Microsoft were advertising Edge on bing.

Yet again, Microsoft is up to their old tricks. Sleezily shoving windows 10 down the throats of users and now slimy tricks to get people to install their new browser.

Re:"Google works better with Chrome"

[WheezyJoe]

Yes, and Yahoo (remember them?) suggests you run Firefox. But these are routinely ignored, jammed somewhere on a corner of the page. Attentive users may be annoyed for a few moments before moving on, while novice users have no awareness it was ever there. I mean, the page is displaying, isn't it? It's like you drive to McDonald's, and see a sign that says "Your ride here would have been more fun in a Chevy Malibu!" Nevertheless, you've arrived, your attention turns to your craving for salty oily processed food, and you go on your way.

It's a different thing when the OS itself bitches at you. They tend to look like dire warnings, that send dumb users to the phones asking "am I doing something wrong?" Like Amber-Alert signs flashing at you to dump your ride for a Chevy Malibu cause you're wasting gas or something.

Re:"Google works better with Chrome"

[kheldan]

Knowing Microsoft's history, I wouldn't at all be surprised if it detects a 3rd-party browser being used, and intentionally disables power management to force battery drain, to trick you into using their browser instead.

Hey, nice battery you've got there, end user, it would be a shame if something.. HAPPENED to it.. Maybe you'd better use our Edge browser, you know, for your own protection

Re:"Google works better with Chrome"

[mschwanke97402]

So what's the news? Google pushes you to download Chrome every time you visit their site.

I don't have to use Google. In fact, I use DuckDuckGo instead. I pretty much have to use Windows for business reasons. You see the difference?

Then there is simply the old school belief that a computer OS should be a neutral platform, enabling the user to make the computer do its bidding, not serving up ads that you can't turn off on a device that you actually need to use.

Re:"Google works better with Chrome"

[shaitand]

Google and Facebook are pretty sleazy but they don't have a monopoly. Idiots buy into their shit eyes wide open.

Microsoft does have a monopoly and is actively trying to use it to dupe people into adopting their new products.

Google and Facebook have set up a stand that says in big bold blinking letters. "Free stonecones with ass raping!" When questioned they say that everyone has to be ass raped in order to make free snow cones possible. But that isn't the point, the point is, you could simply choose to buy a snow cone at any of the other snow cone stands.

Microsoft is setting up a booth in the doorway of the only grocery store in town with a sign saying "Free health checkup! You'll live longer using our quick and fun service." You then have to solve a rubiks cube to indicate you don't want the service and just want to go in the store, anything else, including putting the cube down results in a 6'5 greasy convict grabbing you and ass raping you.

See the difference?

Consistency people

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't bitch about this unless you are prepared to acknowledge that Microsoft is just catching up to what Google's been doing for years. Since at least 2013, every time I visit a Google property, I'm encouraged to "download a safer, faster, more secure Chrome browser".

Re:Consistency people

[torkus]

Yup, but not on my desktop itself.

I only see those notifications when I visit google's webpage as part of (or in place of) other ads.

As opposed to a 'notification area' being used as an advertising area. It'd be nice though if they made a button called 'yeah I acutally know what i'm doing, leave me alone' ... I mean besides installing linux of course.

Laughable

[Anonymous Coward]

It's laughable that they claim to care about the battery now. If they really cared, they'd let me shut down my fucking laptop without installing updates.

Hey Microsoft! I don't always have time or battery power to sit around waiting for updates to install!

Re:Laughable

[Anonymous Coward]

I know, on my own system on my own time I definitely do this.

But when I'm on site with a client's system and I have to make the judgement call: screw the OS and waste the afternoon rebuilding/restoring, or wait out the upgrades, it's a tough decision. Last one I did was a 90 minute fucking wait. Screw that.

Re:Warning: Windows 10 is draining your battery

[jellomizer]

I expect most of it is because Edge is already running in the background (Integrated web browser). So When running Chrome of Firefox it is using more power because you are running Edge and the other browser. If you could fully deIntegrate the web browser from Windows You may see Windows running with less power requirement. And when you kick off a third party browser you may not see such a drane.

Also I expect your other browsers are using the extra processing power to do things like properly rendering the page. And not the cheapo decade behind the times compatibility that Edge has to offer.

Re:Windows 10 isn't done until...

[Shadow99_1]

Ironically Chrome runs just fine for me on Windows 10, however Edge does not. It regularly 'comes up' and then doesn't load correctly. This gives me a useless window that won't connect to sites on the internet. Ever. I open and close it enough it it may eventually open correctly. Chrome? Chrome always opens. Firefox did as well when I had it installed. Opera works fine and all the time as well. No idea why Edge can't work right, but it's the one I won't be using.

Re:Warning: Windows 10 is draining your battery

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoah, wait, Edge is integrated into Windows? Didn't we already go down this path with IE way back when? ugh :(

Re:google chrome sleep mode?

[tepples]

Chrome will automatically unload the contents of tabs you can't see in low memory conditions.

Which makes it harder to open things in tabs to read later while offline, as it'll often try to reload them from the Internet instead of cache.

Old dog, old tricks

[duckintheface]

In the late 1990s Microsoft was found guilty of violations of the anti-trust laws for using their monopoly in one market (operating systems) to leverage market share in another market (browsers). Through a number a dirty tactics, Microsoft stole the browser market from Netscape and avoided the creation of an independent, OS-neutral, platform for running applications.

Now, twenty years later, Microsoft up to its old tricks. Using the Windows 10 market share to leverage its browser. I'm thinking the Department of Justice might want to take a look at the Microsoft consent decree from their last conviction.

Re:Old dog, old tricks

[Anonymous Coward]

Netscape lost their market share all by themselves. Before it imploded it became a bug ridden and bloated piece of garbage. And MS was under no obligation to make their browser work on other OS's. They gained market dominance because no one put forth the effort to compete against them. Windows was horrible and almost unusable in the early days. Apple took on the challenge of competing with MS but their business model made their products more expensive. Apple lost the business user market to MS because of the cost differential and a lack of 3rd party hardware compatibility.

A great many of potential competitors at the time sold their application technology to MS. Lotus 1-2-3, Word Perfect, and even the Borland application development tool sets had a good share of the market and they lost it all to MS because it was easier to take the money and run.

MS entered the PC revolution starting from scratch. Apple did the same. There was nothing stopping anyone else from devising another competing technology.

And being a monopoly is not against the law. It is against the law to use their monopoly to strangle competition. However, MS didn't use their monopoly to control the market because for that to happen you actually need a competitor to strangle. MS pumped money into Apple so they could claim their was a competitor who offered different hardware and software solutions and with the two ecosystems that were totally independent of one another.

The people wailing about the MS monopoly basically wanted a do over because they were late to the game. Now things have evolved and their are alternatives to MS but a lot of people would rather stand around berating MS instead of using the choices they have to build any computer environment they want.

Re:Old dog, old tricks

[Anonymous Coward]

Later it was reinstated without the ability to download and save videos, which was the issue.

And normally slashdotters would applaud the ability to do such a thing, but because it's Microsoft it's an attack on the poor content creators and Microsoft should respect the Digital Restrictions Management handcuffs!