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Annoying 'Open PDF In Edge' Default Option Puts Windows 10 Users At Risk (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: Microsoft fixed today a serious security flaw in the Windows PDF Library, a standard library used by Windows 10 to open and render PDF files, embedded by default in Edge. Exploiting this flaw allows attackers to execute code on the user's machine and take over the device, just by tricking a user into accessing a PDF hosted online via Edge. Since Edge is not only the default browser in Windows 10, but also the default PDF reader, this flaw puts countless of users that have not changed those settings at risk. Even worse, Microsoft has the annoying habit of resetting your personal app preferences once in a blue moon, always reverting Edge as the default browser and the default app to open PDF files.
I don't want to use Edge and I want my settings to stick. Why are they obviously purposefully reverting my settings? I go out of my way to change a normal default setting and MS switches it back. Many times this has happened. There's no excuse for this horseshit.
At risk of opening a PDF? Why not automatically open the PDF in protected mode? Surely Edge is advanced enough not to open a PDF with full access permissions to running macros and such?? I mean, Edge can even do WebRTC so at long last Microsoft is catching up to the rest of the world. Surely security considerations can't be far behind. Right? GUYS??
slashdot: A failed experiment.
I use Ubuntu and Windows10 for differing tasks, but I really dislike Edge, and I have since the beginning been using IE11 on Win10. Not that I am disputing it happens but I've not had my defaults reset from what I chose when I 'upgraded' my laptop from Win7 to Win10. In favor of Win10 both the sleep and hibernate function work well now, whereas under Win7 they froze or locked up quite frequently.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Because fuck you, that's why. - S. Nadella
...Since Edge is not only the default browser in Windows 10, but also the default PDF reader...
This is so wrong on so many levels.
.
But fundamentally, why, oh, why, is the browser being promoted to being a viewer of non-HTML documents?
Convenience over security still seems to be the rule at Microsoft.
Has Microsoft learned nothing in the past two decades?
And Windows 10 was supposed to be the paradigm of security for Windows....
Easy: it's ALL about money. What you want or need is *completely* irrelevant. Every update, they'll revert the privacy settings to spy on you more, they'll reinstall the metro/whatever apps you uninstalled because you WILL use the appy apps! Then they reset the defaults to those appy apps. All that, because they'll make 30% cut of the appy app sales. Now, be a good consumer and keep using Windows 10! It's been going in that direction steadily for 5 years (since Windows 8) and it'll keep getting worse. MS no longer cares to even pretend they care about what people want or need. Users are there for the milking and that is all.
MS is just doing what it thinks is the, uhm, needful.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I think the bigger surprise was that Microsoft claims that UWP apps are sandboxed, only they're not.
It could be worse, they could flag your preferred program as incompatible and helpfully uninstall it for you.
When I'm buying old Win98/2000 books and am finding they mostly do a good enough job of teaching you how to make programs that are just as good if not better than the programs made using the most up-to-date libraries then something's very wrong.
Which I had mod point, certainly, you have nailed it.
Microsoft wants you to use Edge and wants their settings to stick. Why are you obviously purposefully reverting their settings? They go out of their way to create a normal default setting and you switch it back. Many times this has happened. There's no excuse for this horseshit.
FTFY.
They should first finish the browser before trying to compete.
Last time I checked, Edge didn't support desktop drag&drop, which all major browsers (including Internet Explorer) have for many years.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
> MS no longer cares to even pretend they care about what people want or need. Users are there for the milking and that is all.
How is that different from any profit organization?
Nanny knows best!
Damn it man, don't give them ideas.
Did you disable Windows Update? I've seen Edge reset to default under two conditions:
1. If there's a problem with my default settings, for example when I upgraded Firefox to the 64 bit version and uninstalled the 32 bit version because the two interfered. Not only would it not let me set Firefox as the default any more using the Windows 10 interface (the old Windows 7 defaults window, which is still available but hidden, worked) but it reset everything to Edge until I found the latter workaround.
2. Whenever a "Big" update occurs, such as the Fall Update and Anniversary Updates.
The first is completely understandable (minus the not being allowed to select Firefox using the Windows 10 UI). The second... not so much.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
If you're not using Linux or a similarly rights-respecting OS then you're literally one of the reasons this is happening.
Fools stay in an abusive relationship and complain about it.