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Every day, tens of millions of UK users rely on the internet on their Windows PCs: to work, to communicate, to undertake research, to share ideas and to engage with the world. But what happens when users鈥� ability to freely choose and use PC web browsers; our portals into this all-important forum is subverted?

An essential freedom is compromised: the ability to navigate the internet on our own terms.

For years, Microsoft has manipulated PC browser choice on devices running its dominant Windows OS in order to advance its own browser, Edge. Instead of competing on features and innovation, Microsoft requires major PC OEMs to exclusively preinstall Edge across all听of their Windows PCs and deploys various dark patterns and sludge tactics to force the continued use of its own browser over rivals.

Microsoft thus undermines effective choice.This isn鈥檛 just about a browser; it鈥檚 about whether a user can make their own choices to conduct business on their own terms with the tools they prefer or whether Microsoft decides for them.

What does this look like in practice? There are a range of tactics in use by Microsoft to prevent or discourage users from using Edge鈥檚 competitors, including:

• Intrusive and misleading banners when users seek out alternatives to Edge. When users use Edge to search for an alternative browser, Microsoft displays prominent, intrusive and often misleading banners on the Bing search engine results page. Users are liable to mistake these for security alerts against competing browsers
• The preinstallation of Edge and ONLY Edge on new Windows PCs worldwide (Jumpstart Program). Microsoft economically coerces major PC OEMs to set Edge as the exclusive preinstalled browser across their entire portfolio by 鈥榓ll or nothing鈥� discounts on the price of a must-have Windows licence, freezing out smaller rivals from even a small slice of distribution opportunities
• System updates to push users back to Edge or manipulative interface design that scares and confuses users into switching their default browser back to Edge after a system update
• Impeding users鈥� ability to change default browser, including blocking rivals鈥� one-click-switch workarounds, introducing complex settings menus where Edge stays as default for important file types and apps despite the user having chosen a different default browser, and hardwiring Edge to key OS-level access points (like Windows Search and Widgets)

Thankfully Change Is On The Horizon

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On 14 May 2026, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) formally launched an investigation under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (鈥淒MCCA鈥�) to assess whether Microsoft should be designated as having strategic market status (鈥淪MS鈥�) based on its influence resulting from the widespread corporate use of Microsoft鈥檚 must-have Windows OS, productivity software suite, and other products.

This is a critical first step towards ensuring free and fair competition within Microsoft鈥檚 business software ecosystem, including between browsers, which are听the听key gateway for PC users to access the internet and web-based services.

The impact is clear; in a survey undertaken for the BCA in May 2026, more than 90% of UK small and medium-sized enterprises reported that they use web browsers for work. Throughout the UK, every day 15 to 25 million corporate users of the Windows OS access the internet as part of their work and do so using PC browsers. Microsoft鈥檚 restrictive practices don鈥檛 just force Edge onto users, they directly interfere with the user experience that is critical to the function of UK businesses.

At a macro level, these individual frictions likely add up to many hours of lost productivity a day. Crucially, Microsoft鈥檚 practices prevent users from experiencing the best features and innovations that alternative browsers have to offer and limit the ability of rival browsers, including UK-based browsers such as Wavebox and Waterfox, to invest in innovation.

This issue goes beyond our daily web-based tasks 鈥� Microsoft鈥檚 behaviour impacts the entire digital ecosystem.听PCs are a critical channel for important, complex and high-value AI tasks that relate to business or professional use and education such as coding, deep research and more.

Moreover, PC browsers are among the primary ways, if not听theprimary way, that PC users access different AI agents and AI chatbots for these vital, organisational AI tasks. PC browsers are also a key way to access cloud-based software. If left unchecked, Microsoft鈥檚 efforts to control the way PC users access the internet today can have far-reaching consequences for how everyone will access the critical products of tomorrow.

The CMA investigation 鈥� including consultation with important stakeholders 鈥� is now formally open and will continue until February 2027, making it a critical time for UK internet users, businesses of all sizes and other organisations to speak up for the freedom for all UK PC users to navigate the internet own their own terms (for more details, see the CMA website ).

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For more information on how to protect your browser choice, please visit:听