So MicroSoft (Thats what Bill's ex called it) doesnt know theres a thing called windows?
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My laptop doesn't support windows 11.. no dice for me
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Yeah sure I'd love to have a dozen pop-ups on my screen while in-game instead of just taking 2 seconds to pause and alt-tab when I need to look up random stuff on some wiki.
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Clippy: I see you're near a dungeon, do you know that it can contain beneficial items, and money?
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So, alt+tab is too complicated?
I mean, it's nice that Microsoft is caring a little bit about PC players. But... alt+tab.... is enough
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Some older games crash when you altTab... Although I can image this would crash them too :D
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Re8 drops frames HEAVILY after alt-tabing out of it, so it happens with quite modern games, in fullscreen windowed mode.
(Speaking about older games, I think Fallout 3 or Oblivion just straight-uo crashed from alt-tab :D)
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Jedi Knight's main menu tripped on acid if you alt-tabbed, lol.
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Not a bad idea, might check it out.
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wow these comments are way too negative for no reason... I mean steam literally has a browser in the overlay and no one bitches about that. Not everyone has two monitors. Not everyone plays borderless and overlay browser is faster than alt+tabbing exclusive fullscreen games. Why would there be pop ups unless you visit a site that has invasive pop ups (which should be mostly none, and you can have adblock [probably]). And not everyone uses Steam (and i'd rather use my own browser in an overlay over Steam's due to extensions + cookies).
I think this is super useful. I would prefer if Microsoft refines their OS before branching off to new features (and adding bloat)... but this is actually a neat feature.
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Thank you for mentioning the unnecessary negativity that seems to go on this site a lot and putting some positivity on things. I also think this could have potential and don't use the Steam overlay much myself.
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So they took a look at how the Steam overlay works and decided to make their own version of it, I guess that's a nice feature for those who use Edge and don't have a second monitor. I personally just use my phone when I don't have a second monitor available but to each their own, and I'm not gonna touch Edge even if they paid me to do so, no way I'm gonna use a Chromium-based browser as my main, those are a RAM bomb (yes, I'm aware that Steam itself is Chromium-based, but what option do I have?).
I do wonder where that 88% stat comes from tho.
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Yeah, you don't really need a full browser for this though. The main benefit of having a browser in the overlay is that you can use things like Twitch/Youtube chat windows, Discord or other messaging apps, widgets, etc. All on top of the game in a translucent way. That's actually really useful, even for people who have two monitors. I'm sure Microsoft's implementation will work just fine for that purpose too.
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If you're gonna have a video playing on the same screen you might as well run the game in a smaller window tho, at some point it will turn into pure visual clutter otherwise. I actually really like how Firefox handles video because you can separate any video into its own little window that can be put in front of anything and resized and moved around, very practical for when using a laptop where you have to make do with a single screen that isn't that large, I don't know if other browsers allow you to do that kinda stuff as easily.
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That's a standard feature in most browsers these days I think, Chrome has it as well. And I used to do that as well, having the video window on top of the game, but using the overlay is way better. Simple reason is that sometimes the "invisible" mouse cursor the game uses will happen to come across the video window, and when you click you lose focus from the game. Very annoying, especially in multiplayer games.
So the overlay is the same principle, but just way better for gaming purposes, you can position and resize the window to be exactly where you want it. Pin it, then you can just set the transparency and it stays there. The game can be run in a window, fullscreen or whatever you want.
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I wouldn't use M$ Edge or Chrome if they would pay me to do so.
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A browser made specifically for gaming is cool. I could see Google and other browser companies following suite.
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If you're playing an erotic puzzle game Clippy will pop up in your browser with helpful masturbation tips.
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someone already animated that. it came from an episode of last week tonight with john oliver, it haunts my memory
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im good with firefox
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We live in an uncomplicated world as most of Mozilla's revenue is from Alphabet for making Google Firefox's default search engine.
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always the 1st thing i get rid of after a fresh install.
googles search engine sucks butthole
they also moved the search algorithm to youtube not that long ago and now that sucks the same ass. scrolling down after your search is the most random bullshit that has nothing to do with what you searched.
i know who created the video word for word
i know vaguely know the name of the video
cant find it at all
use duckduckgo to search the video and its the top result
would leave youtube in a heartbeat if there was a different site that had all the content creators i follow
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Don't get me wrong please I used Firefox for a long time myself and as Mozilla develops the only browser engine different from Chromium its importance should be evident. The irony lies in the fact that it does get a lot of praise but its users don't spend enough to support it and keep it alive.
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[...] Mozilla develops the only browser engine different from Chromium [...]
There's also WebKit browser engine for Safari (Apple) and Qt, for completeness.
It's a problem with free software, people could spend a lot on bad AAA game, but feels strange to donate a cent to open source software.
Some article: The slow evaporation of the free/open source surplus.
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My bad for not mentioning Safari. Reason is my very superficial relation with Apple ecosystem. The only product I own from them is an old (still functioning) Power PC which serves as a tertiary coffee table.
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Completely agree. Got rid of all google sh*t ages ago, except for gmail. I have my important emails on a different domain, but some stuff still goes to gmail.
You could use FreeTube. May not help much with searches, but it helps with privacy. Much lighter too.
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No thanks. Can't use adblock within a gaming browser and online ad hosts have poor moderation checks to know if ads contain viruses or malware.
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I use this on Steam. It's a good feature, but I won't be using it.
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Under "Getting started"
"Set Edge Beta as your default browser: go to Windows Settings > Apps > Default apps, search for Edge and, at the top of the page, click Edge Beta > Set as default."
That's all it's main function is.
To get more people to use Edge as their default browser.
Because Data farming, ad revenue, clicks etc
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I LOVE that. Really. But...
TOO LATE aint it?
Now Steam is ubiqutuous on pc- and i add my non-steam games (epic etc) to steam because of the overlay.
And that gives me: Browser, guides, discussion, notes and now even clip recording with galery and builtin editor
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Alternative to that wherein you dont need to set Edge as default is to use this widget already available:
Browser for Game Bar
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They need to start asking gamers if this is what they find useful. Looking at this thread alone, the answer seems to be an overwhelming no. Maybe there's 1% that wanted this, was it worth the resources to build this and is it worth the resources to maintain it? I don't think so. Instead they should use those team members to make edge a better browser so people don't shit on it constantly.
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"88% of PC players use a browser while gaming to get help, track their progress, or even listen to music or chat with friends1. These actions require you to pull out your phone or Alt-Tab to the desktop on your PC, taking you out of your game. Unless you have multiple monitors, you also can’t see what’s happening in the game while you’re in the browser or reference a guide while you play.
We believe there’s a better way. Today, we’re excited to introduce Microsoft Edge Game Assist (Preview), the first in-game browser that delivers a rich gaming-centric browsing experience—including access to your browser data from your PC and mobile devices.
Game Assist is a special version of Microsoft Edge that’s optimized for PC gaming and can appear on top of your game in Game Bar. It’s game-aware and will suggest tips and guides for what you’re playing. It also shares the same browser data with Edge on your PC so the information you care about is always accessible while you play—including your favorites, history, cookies, form fills, and more. This means you don’t need to log into sites again, and it’s easy to get to what you care about. You can even quickly access your favorite services like Discord, Twitch, Spotify, or any other page or site in the sidebar. And, like other Game Bar widgets, you can pin Game Assist above your game so you can reference a guide or watch a video while you play."
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2024/11/22/introducing-microsoft-edge-game-assist-preview/
TLDR You will need Windows 11 for this.
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