Microsoft to Forcibly Install Bing Search Extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus Users
https://www.zdnet.comMicrosoft plans to forcibly install the “Microsoft Search in Bing” extension in Chrome browsers for some of its Office 365 ProPlus customers. The Chrome extension will be forcibly installed starting with Office 365 ProPlus version 2002, scheduled for release in February, and a broader rollout in March, which effectively makes Bing the default search engine in Chrome. Looks like Microsoft will try anything to push people over to using Bing and it feels like they are getting back to their pre-antitrust lawsuit ways.
The first to receive the extensions will be users in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but users in other countries will follow
The move, for very obvious reasons, has sparked quite the push-back from system administrators, with many voicing negative feedback on both Reddit and GitHub [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Microsoft has anticipated some of the pushback. In its support document, Microsoft provides instructions on how Office 365 ProPlus customers can exclude the extension from being installed, either by using the Office Deployment Tool or by using a Group Policy. In addition, the OS maker is also providing instructions on how to remove the extension after it’s been installed, if system administrators forgot to deploy countermeasures before the February and March rollouts.