Microsoft’s approach to browser choice in Windows 11 has long been a sore point for users who value autonomy over their computing experience. This week, the company took a major step in realigning its practices—at least in the eyes of European regulators—by announcing sweeping changes aimed at users within the European Economic Area (EEA). The new policies mean that, for EU-based users, Microsoft will no longer nag them to set Edge as their default browser. If they don't want Edge, they’re free to uninstall it outright, free from future pestering or prompts to reinstall. Windows Search will even respect your chosen default browser for web results, rather than sidelining your preference in favor of Edge.
What’s driving these changes is European law, particularly the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which challenges big technology companies over their monopolistic practices. Microsoft’s previous behavior—pushing Edge, funnelling web searches to Bing, and making key apps difficult to remove—has been under increasing scrutiny. Now, EU users will also gain the ability to completely uninstall the Microsoft Store app via a simple right-click from Start or the Settings menu. Remarkably, apps that depend on the Store for updates will still receive them, whether or not the Store is present on your PC. And for those who prefer to avoid web search integration altogether, Windows Search now allows the complete disabling of online results. While these are undoubted victories for EU consumers, they also cast a long shadow over users elsewhere, who must watch (and wait) for similar freedoms.
Battery life has become a critical differentiator for laptop users, and Microsoft is responding by experimenting with a novel power-saving feature named User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management. Unlike most existing power-saving options—which typically reduce performance based on preset profiles or system states—this system-level enhancement is dynamic. When the device detects that the user is idle, the feature automatically throttles the processor, dialing down voltages and clock speeds to approach a low-power, sleep-like C-State. Upon detecting activity, Windows springs back to full performance.
While this technology is being tested in Insider builds and its rollout timeline remains subject to change, early indications suggest it could arrive as part of Windows 11 24H2 or possibly 25H2 updates. Hardware nuances will influence real-world results: battery savings will depend on the laptop’s power mode, current charge, and processor management settings determined by device manufacturers. It’s a subtle step, but one with the potential for appreciable battery longevity, especially as software power management catches up with hardware advances.
Markdown, a lightweight markup language beloved by technologists and content creators, provides a means of adding bold, italics, links, headings, and structured lists to otherwise plain text. By building this into Notepad, Microsoft is signaling an intent to appeal to new audiences—students, programmers, writers, and anyone else who values a straightforward, readable format for notes and documents. The implementation is entirely optional, with toggles in the settings to deactivate if it’s not wanted. Formatting options are accessible through the Edit and View menus and the status bar, blending into Notepad’s ethos of simplicity.
Markdown’s addition is more than cosmetic. It marks a clear nod toward the developer and productivity community—demonstrating Microsoft’s recognition of practices that have, until now, largely flourished outside its core toolset.
Critics allege this move is designed to push users towards the pricier YouTube Premium plan, which is nearly twice as expensive at $13.99/month but offers a genuinely ad-free experience along with additional perks like background play and offline downloads. The response from the community has been swift and negative—many accuse Google of “double-dipping,” selling ads and subscription access simultaneously. With the company’s increasingly aggressive posture against ad blockers and privacy tools, many users are questioning the long-term value of these paid tiers.
What’s more, Premium Lite remains a geographically limited experiment, available only in the US, Australia, Thailand, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the UK. This selective rollout, plus the perception that users are being steered towards higher subscription fees, underscores the complicated economics facing streaming giants as they seek growth in a competitive market.
The premise is as familiar as it is powerful: type a prompt (“Create a video of…”), and watch as Bing produces a five-second clip in a “vertical” 9:16 format. Unlike Sora, which is currently limited to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, Bing Video Creator is free—up to a point. Every user receives ten “fast” video generations at no cost; after that, video processing shifts to a sluggish “Standard” pace, which may frustrate those seeking rapid results. However, Microsoft allows users to exchange 100 Microsoft Rewards points for an additional “Fast” creation, an intriguing (if slightly convoluted) incentive to engage with the company’s broader ecosystem.
Currently, output is restricted to five-second videos in vertical orientation, but Microsoft promises future support for widescreen (16:9) projects, signaling an expansion into YouTube and desktop content creation. The partnership with OpenAI pushes Bing’s capabilities further than rival AI search competitors—though the limits on video length, speed, and format show how cautious Microsoft remains in rolling out fully open-ended generative AI.
KDE points to its Plasma desktop, whose design closely mimics Windows, as a gentle transition for beginners. Their argument isn’t just about aesthetics or licensing: Linux remains free, supports laptops and desktops up to 15 years old, and helps keep usable hardware out of landfills. The group is also backing the “End of 10 Project,” a volunteer-driven campaign aimed at demystifying Linux migration for everyday users. The initiative aims to combat both digital waste and the security risks of running unsupported software.
There’s a clear subtext of criticism directed at Microsoft’s recent guidance, which has implied that users should buy new hardware. While the big tech ecosystem usually benefits from forced upgrades, KDE and other open-source advocates argue that this model is environmentally catastrophic and unnecessary for most computing needs.
Yet the differences in treatment between EU users and the rest of the world are troubling. It’s clear that Microsoft, like its peers, will only grant this degree of control under serious regulatory pressure. For users outside Europe, the lack of parity remains a glaring reminder of the limitations of voluntary self-regulation in tech.
The push toward more aggressive power management in Windows 11 signals continued prioritization of mobile and energy-constrained devices. As the average laptop’s capabilities balloon, so do expectations around battery life. Microsoft’s “user-aware” approach is a subtle but meaningful acknowledgment that software should accommodate not just the hardware it runs on but also the context in which it’s used. These changes, assuming they make it to the stable channel, will likely be welcomed—though as always, the details will matter, and users should be prepared for some initial hiccups as hardware and software compatibility issues are ironed out.
Notepad’s newfound capabilities underscore Microsoft’s growing embrace of modern workflows and developer-centric tools. The addition of Markdown support may seem minor, but its inclusion hints at bigger ambitions: making native Windows tools more competitive with open-source alternatives like Typora or VS Code’s built-in Markdown preview. This is a savvy play that positions Windows as a more appealing environment for power users, writers, and coders, without alienating the millions for whom Notepad remains a quick-jot tool.
The controversies swirling around YouTube highlight a wider discomfort with the trajectory of ad-supported content. Premium Lite’s inclusion of more advertisements for paying users feels like a clear “dark pattern”—one intended to coax, or nudge, subscribers into more expensive tiers. It’s a textbook test of consumer tolerance, and so far, pushback has been fierce. The more Google closes the window on ad-blocking and alternative clients, the more users will scrutinize the value proposition of its subscriptions.
Microsoft’s Bing Video Creator points toward a near future where generative AI video is a mainstream creative tool—in much the same vein as DALL-E and Midjourney have made AI image generation ubiquitous. The limitations imposed at launch (short lengths, vertical-only format, speed throttling after 10 free generations) are evidence of the inherent complexities. Video generation at scale is computationally intensive and riddled with potential for misuse. Careful, measured rollout and incentivized resource management show the industry’s caution and signal what users can expect as these tools open up.
The KDE invitation to Windows 10 exiles offers both a practical and philosophical alternative. It opens the door to an ecosystem that values openness, sustainability, and user control. Transitions come with growing pains: not all software or workflows easily translate cross-platform, and Linux’s learning curve—while much improved—remains steeper than Windows for non-technical users. Nonetheless, the environmental argument gains urgency every year, and the prospect of revitalizing millions of “obsolete” PCs is an appealing challenge to the throwaway culture dominating modern computing.
For Microsoft, balancing innovation, fair competition, and regulatory compliance is a delicate dance. Its embrace of AI and open standards, like Markdown in core apps, side-by-side with its ongoing reliance on defaults and ecosystem “stickiness,” typifies a tension at the heart of modern tech giants. How the company navigates these waters will set the tone for future interactions between users, regulators, and platform providers. If user pressure—backed by credible alternatives like Linux—continues to build, change could come faster and be more universal.
Ultimately, these developments serve as a reminder: the desktop is far from dead, and the battle for user agency is very much alive. Whether through legislative action, open-source alternatives, or incremental updates to decades-old tools, the fight for a more open, respectful computing experience continues. And for the tech titans, the question is less “if” than “when” global users will demand—and receive—the same respect and autonomy now being piloted on the world’s biggest digital stage: the European Union.
Source: FileHippo June 7 tech news roundup: Windows 11 will stop prompting EU users to use Edge, YouTube Premium Lite will show more ads, KDE is inviting Windows 10 users to switch to Linux
What’s driving these changes is European law, particularly the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which challenges big technology companies over their monopolistic practices. Microsoft’s previous behavior—pushing Edge, funnelling web searches to Bing, and making key apps difficult to remove—has been under increasing scrutiny. Now, EU users will also gain the ability to completely uninstall the Microsoft Store app via a simple right-click from Start or the Settings menu. Remarkably, apps that depend on the Store for updates will still receive them, whether or not the Store is present on your PC. And for those who prefer to avoid web search integration altogether, Windows Search now allows the complete disabling of online results. While these are undoubted victories for EU consumers, they also cast a long shadow over users elsewhere, who must watch (and wait) for similar freedoms.
Windows 11: Power-Saving Advances for Laptops
Battery life has become a critical differentiator for laptop users, and Microsoft is responding by experimenting with a novel power-saving feature named User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management. Unlike most existing power-saving options—which typically reduce performance based on preset profiles or system states—this system-level enhancement is dynamic. When the device detects that the user is idle, the feature automatically throttles the processor, dialing down voltages and clock speeds to approach a low-power, sleep-like C-State. Upon detecting activity, Windows springs back to full performance.While this technology is being tested in Insider builds and its rollout timeline remains subject to change, early indications suggest it could arrive as part of Windows 11 24H2 or possibly 25H2 updates. Hardware nuances will influence real-world results: battery savings will depend on the laptop’s power mode, current charge, and processor management settings determined by device manufacturers. It’s a subtle step, but one with the potential for appreciable battery longevity, especially as software power management catches up with hardware advances.
Notepad’s Unexpected Makeover: Markdown Support Arrives
Often dismissed as just “the default plain text editor,” Notepad has quietly evolved into a surprisingly capable tool in recent years—adding tabs, spellcheck, and even Copilot-powered text AI. Now, Microsoft is pushing the envelope even further by introducing optional Markdown formatting to Notepad, currently available for users in the Windows Insider program.Markdown, a lightweight markup language beloved by technologists and content creators, provides a means of adding bold, italics, links, headings, and structured lists to otherwise plain text. By building this into Notepad, Microsoft is signaling an intent to appeal to new audiences—students, programmers, writers, and anyone else who values a straightforward, readable format for notes and documents. The implementation is entirely optional, with toggles in the settings to deactivate if it’s not wanted. Formatting options are accessible through the Edit and View menus and the status bar, blending into Notepad’s ethos of simplicity.
Markdown’s addition is more than cosmetic. It marks a clear nod toward the developer and productivity community—demonstrating Microsoft’s recognition of practices that have, until now, largely flourished outside its core toolset.
YouTube Premium Lite: More Ads, More Controversy
YouTube’s monetization strategy continues to stoke debate. The company has announced that its “Premium Lite” tier—which costs $7.99 per month and is available in a handful of countries—will soon show even more ads to subscribers. Previously, Premium Lite removed most pre- and mid-roll ads from non-music content but already let some ads slip through on certain music videos and genre-specific searches. Now, YouTube is notifying customers that Shorts (the platform’s answer to TikTok) will also start displaying ads even to these paying users.Critics allege this move is designed to push users towards the pricier YouTube Premium plan, which is nearly twice as expensive at $13.99/month but offers a genuinely ad-free experience along with additional perks like background play and offline downloads. The response from the community has been swift and negative—many accuse Google of “double-dipping,” selling ads and subscription access simultaneously. With the company’s increasingly aggressive posture against ad blockers and privacy tools, many users are questioning the long-term value of these paid tiers.
What’s more, Premium Lite remains a geographically limited experiment, available only in the US, Australia, Thailand, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the UK. This selective rollout, plus the perception that users are being steered towards higher subscription fees, underscores the complicated economics facing streaming giants as they seek growth in a competitive market.
Bing Video Creator: Free AI Video Generation—With Limits
Microsoft’s latest foray into generative AI goes visual with Bing Video Creator, now launched for all users. Built on OpenAI’s Sora model—introduced in December 2024—this service promises to democratize short-form AI video creation. Anyone can access the tool via the Bing app on iOS or Android, with a web version in development.The premise is as familiar as it is powerful: type a prompt (“Create a video of…”), and watch as Bing produces a five-second clip in a “vertical” 9:16 format. Unlike Sora, which is currently limited to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, Bing Video Creator is free—up to a point. Every user receives ten “fast” video generations at no cost; after that, video processing shifts to a sluggish “Standard” pace, which may frustrate those seeking rapid results. However, Microsoft allows users to exchange 100 Microsoft Rewards points for an additional “Fast” creation, an intriguing (if slightly convoluted) incentive to engage with the company’s broader ecosystem.
Currently, output is restricted to five-second videos in vertical orientation, but Microsoft promises future support for widescreen (16:9) projects, signaling an expansion into YouTube and desktop content creation. The partnership with OpenAI pushes Bing’s capabilities further than rival AI search competitors—though the limits on video length, speed, and format show how cautious Microsoft remains in rolling out fully open-ended generative AI.
KDE’s Message to Windows 10 Holdouts: Switch to Linux, Don’t Landfill Your PC
As Microsoft’s October 14, 2025, end-of-support deadline for Windows 10 nears, a quiet environmental and technological crisis is brewing. Old hardware “unsupported” by Windows 11 risks obsolescence, despite being functionally sound. In response, the KDE software community—a major force behind the Linux desktop experience—has issued a passionate appeal to Windows 10 users: Don’t throw away your computers, and don’t cling to an increasingly vulnerable OS. Instead, migrate to Linux.KDE points to its Plasma desktop, whose design closely mimics Windows, as a gentle transition for beginners. Their argument isn’t just about aesthetics or licensing: Linux remains free, supports laptops and desktops up to 15 years old, and helps keep usable hardware out of landfills. The group is also backing the “End of 10 Project,” a volunteer-driven campaign aimed at demystifying Linux migration for everyday users. The initiative aims to combat both digital waste and the security risks of running unsupported software.
There’s a clear subtext of criticism directed at Microsoft’s recent guidance, which has implied that users should buy new hardware. While the big tech ecosystem usually benefits from forced upgrades, KDE and other open-source advocates argue that this model is environmentally catastrophic and unnecessary for most computing needs.
Deeper Analysis: Pros, Pitfalls, and What It Means for Everyday Users
The latest wave of product updates and policy changes reveals a broader shift toward user empowerment—at least in regions like the EU where regulators have teeth. The ability for European Windows 11 users to finally uninstall core Microsoft apps and make durable browser choices is a big win for privacy and user autonomy. For years, default app “stickiness” and persistent prompts have been front-and-center antitrust flashpoints, not just in the EU but globally. These concessions, if extended beyond Europe, could signal a more open and user-respecting Windows ecosystem.Yet the differences in treatment between EU users and the rest of the world are troubling. It’s clear that Microsoft, like its peers, will only grant this degree of control under serious regulatory pressure. For users outside Europe, the lack of parity remains a glaring reminder of the limitations of voluntary self-regulation in tech.
The push toward more aggressive power management in Windows 11 signals continued prioritization of mobile and energy-constrained devices. As the average laptop’s capabilities balloon, so do expectations around battery life. Microsoft’s “user-aware” approach is a subtle but meaningful acknowledgment that software should accommodate not just the hardware it runs on but also the context in which it’s used. These changes, assuming they make it to the stable channel, will likely be welcomed—though as always, the details will matter, and users should be prepared for some initial hiccups as hardware and software compatibility issues are ironed out.
Notepad’s newfound capabilities underscore Microsoft’s growing embrace of modern workflows and developer-centric tools. The addition of Markdown support may seem minor, but its inclusion hints at bigger ambitions: making native Windows tools more competitive with open-source alternatives like Typora or VS Code’s built-in Markdown preview. This is a savvy play that positions Windows as a more appealing environment for power users, writers, and coders, without alienating the millions for whom Notepad remains a quick-jot tool.
The controversies swirling around YouTube highlight a wider discomfort with the trajectory of ad-supported content. Premium Lite’s inclusion of more advertisements for paying users feels like a clear “dark pattern”—one intended to coax, or nudge, subscribers into more expensive tiers. It’s a textbook test of consumer tolerance, and so far, pushback has been fierce. The more Google closes the window on ad-blocking and alternative clients, the more users will scrutinize the value proposition of its subscriptions.
Microsoft’s Bing Video Creator points toward a near future where generative AI video is a mainstream creative tool—in much the same vein as DALL-E and Midjourney have made AI image generation ubiquitous. The limitations imposed at launch (short lengths, vertical-only format, speed throttling after 10 free generations) are evidence of the inherent complexities. Video generation at scale is computationally intensive and riddled with potential for misuse. Careful, measured rollout and incentivized resource management show the industry’s caution and signal what users can expect as these tools open up.
The KDE invitation to Windows 10 exiles offers both a practical and philosophical alternative. It opens the door to an ecosystem that values openness, sustainability, and user control. Transitions come with growing pains: not all software or workflows easily translate cross-platform, and Linux’s learning curve—while much improved—remains steeper than Windows for non-technical users. Nonetheless, the environmental argument gains urgency every year, and the prospect of revitalizing millions of “obsolete” PCs is an appealing challenge to the throwaway culture dominating modern computing.
The Road Ahead: User Empowerment or Fragmentation?
This convergence of regulatory wins, technological shifts, and consumer pushback is reshaping the desktop landscape. For Windows users, especially those in the EU, newfound freedoms are setting a standard that others will demand. How long will it take for these rights to reach a global audience? Regulatory pressure is a double-edged sword—capable of fostering innovation as well as balkanization, with different features for different user populations.For Microsoft, balancing innovation, fair competition, and regulatory compliance is a delicate dance. Its embrace of AI and open standards, like Markdown in core apps, side-by-side with its ongoing reliance on defaults and ecosystem “stickiness,” typifies a tension at the heart of modern tech giants. How the company navigates these waters will set the tone for future interactions between users, regulators, and platform providers. If user pressure—backed by credible alternatives like Linux—continues to build, change could come faster and be more universal.
Ultimately, these developments serve as a reminder: the desktop is far from dead, and the battle for user agency is very much alive. Whether through legislative action, open-source alternatives, or incremental updates to decades-old tools, the fight for a more open, respectful computing experience continues. And for the tech titans, the question is less “if” than “when” global users will demand—and receive—the same respect and autonomy now being piloted on the world’s biggest digital stage: the European Union.
Source: FileHippo June 7 tech news roundup: Windows 11 will stop prompting EU users to use Edge, YouTube Premium Lite will show more ads, KDE is inviting Windows 10 users to switch to Linux
