Link to the report: https://research.mozilla.org/files/2024/01/Over-the-Edge-Report-January-2024.pdf
Entire report is not worth reading. There is a lot of academic verbiage. Just the screenshots and the accompanying explanations tell the story.
I’m not usually one to harp about the good old days of Microsoft but I have used XP, Vista and 7 in the past and I don’t recall anything like this. Just look at this shit. These kinds of banners and popups are something that literal viruses and malware injected into the OS. Now the largest tech company in the world is baking it into their premier operating system. And this just scratches the surface of how consumer hostile the OS is as a whole. There are countless similar aspects unrelated to Edge.
TLDR: Use Linux 🐧
PSA: There’s a program called “CTT Utility” or something like that that can remove Edge, the Microsoft Store (and consequently all its apps), feature updates (or even all updates, though security updates shouldn’t be disabled ofc) and all telemetry (not sure about this one). Works for w10 and w11
Edit: haven’t tried w11 but from what I’ve seen it’s a pile of ads and sluggish interface. Better to go with Linux (Linux Mint or Fedora KDE or even vanilla Ubuntu)
I keep a windows PC around for games that just don’t work well in Linux (racing sims mostly because the tools for the peripherals just aren’t there yet since everything has to be reverse engineered) and I can definitely recommend Chris Titus Tech’s “The Ultimate Windows Utility” I’ve used it on 10 and 11 and it works great. Combine that with Explorer Patcher on 11 and it’s almost usable again.
(My daily driver is Linux though, I just keep Windows around for my gaming needs and so I don’t lose all of my Windows skills when my extended fam needs tech assistance)
What does explorer patcher do? The readme does not make it clear.
Returns the windows explorer to a more Win10 looking interface instead of the stupid touch optimized Win11 one.