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Microsoft thinks this is okay because Google did the same thing with Chrome on the Google start page.

I remember a coworker asking me what Chrome is, because "his computer" keeps telling him to install it.

Not to fully excuse Google's behavior, but baking that behavior into an operating system seems far worse than putting nags on a website.

Google's prompts weren't that different than those "Get Firefox!" badges people used to put up in the 2000s.

It's not illegal to promote something. What's illegal is overtaking a new market by pushing your stuff via already established monopolies in entirely different markets (at least under EU-law). Which is why Microsoft is taking action (and google stopped pushing their browser via their search engine)

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