so, yes there's now effectively three browsers that you can't get rid off.
You can install a different browser, and make that other browser your default browser - but certain Microsoft apps will ignore that default browser choice, and open links in Edge anyway.
Apart from that, depending on your region and version of Windows, you might get bugged about making Edge your default browser, or switching to Edge during some Windows Updates.
The login screen on Windows is still a veiled advertisement for Bing search, which too opens in Edge.
> IIRC Internet Explorer no longer ships with Windows by default and you have to use an IE compatibility mode of Edge to use sites that require it.
Most or all of IE is still there. All Microsoft has done, is made it so if you launch iexplore.exe without arguments, instead of starting, it pops up a screen telling you to use Edge instead, and offers to start Edge for you.
But, when you enable IE Mode in Edge, then Edge launches a subprocess for each IE Mode tab called "iexplore.exe". In fact, it is launching it with almost the same arguments that IE itself uses to launch a tab subprocess (SCODEF:, CREDAT:), just with an added "APPID:MSEdge" argument.
And the APIs to embed IE into third party apps (MSHTML, WebOC) also still work. It is like they've boarded up the front entrance to make you think the building is closed, but come in the side door you'll discover everything's still open.
That was the Windows 7 N and E editions. N didn't come with Media Player and E didn't come with Internet Explorer. I don't believe any version has had an E edition since Windows 7 but you can still have the N editions through to Windows 11. The requirements by the EU on Microsoft regarding browser choice ended in 2014.
So they are now operating in the same way as Apple.
