[pierrebai]

No, I claim that if you write an OS that you need to support, you need to ensure that some of its basic functionality have been tested and can be vouched to always work for all users.

And also, you have misunderstood my claims about locales. Not all alternative browser support all locals that Windows support. Would you like to have help page from the OS or search result from the OS open in a browser with a UI in another language. Don't forget: not every computer is your own, so people can get in a situation where a browser they have chosen is installed.

If you cannot fathom why this is necessary, it mostly shows you haven't work on large software, with a large install base and support personnel. And yes, search from the start menu and F1 from the explorer are exactly the type of things where you need to guarantee some baseline of functionality and testing and support. Do you want to be the guy in support on the phone trying to explain something about a web browser you know nothing about?

It's not like I'm too dumb to understand the line of reasoning people are using. But people are clearly unwilling to admit there are also good reasons why things are the way they are. Just adamantly repeating that Microsoft does thing for one single reason is just being close-minded for the sake of being right.

As for the competitive aspect: you'd have a leg to stand on if we were talking about how Microsoft makes it harder to switch browsers in Windows 11. But, unfortunately, that is not the subject at hand. It's about specific links that are generate right inside the OS. There is no competition around showing help and OS search result. The browser competition is not about the microsoft-edge: URL schemes. In what world do you live where it is the relevant competition?