Microsoft is in hot water after users revolted following the tech company’s attempts to coerce them into using its own browser service (Microsoft Edge) instead of leading competitors like Firefox or Google Chrome. Fans of Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers were not happy with the heavy-handed tactic to push Microsoft’s browser service on them, and the tech company quickly responded by removing its pop-up warning about relying on non-Microsoft services.

Microsoft’s web browser Edge has always had a problem with attracting users; in the first three months of 2018, for instance, Microsoft Edge accounted for a mere eight percent of 1.2 billion visits to government websites, according to ZDNet.

Compared to rivals like Firefox and Google Chrome, Edge has simply never been able to bolster the amount of people who rely on it for web browsing on a daily basis. Google Chrome remains the most popular browser by far, with some 44.5 percent of all US web browser use, per ZDNet.

Microsoft accused of heavy-handedness

That negative trend is likely to continue now that users are incensed over Microsoft’s heavy-handed approach to get more of them to use Edge. In the preview version of Microsoft 10, a web browser pop-up appeared when users tried to download the browsers of popular competitors like Firefox or Chrome. Testers routinely reported that the message was patronizing and unnecessary, and it created a mild furor on the tech scene before being addressed.

Microsoft has since responded to the public outcry, and the warning pop-up will be stripped from the upcoming Windows 10 October update.

The pop-up in question informed users that using Microsoft Edge, a new product, would provide them with a “faster, safer browser designed for Windows.”

Repeat offenders

This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has attempted to draw users away from competing web browsers, either.

In 2016, the company famously sent notifications to Windows 10 users that using Google Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge was draining their battery at a substantially faster pace. Notifications like the battery alert or pop-up warning that users are currently experiencing can be turned off in the settings of Windows 10.

The pop-up warning is a stumbling block for Microsoft ahead of the company’s expected rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 update, which Tech Radar notes will introduce new software updates.