“Despite not having implemented the changes everyone assumed it had, it has received lots of positive press attention for doing the right thing.”
Microsoft wrote one vague changelog line about the EEA and hundreds of sites reported that Windows now respects your default browser. Aleksandersen tested builds 23531, 23536 and 23541, including the EU “N” editions. Copilot, Start, Search, Outlook, Teams and Widgets still force-open Edge. Microsoft got the headline for free and kept the behavior.