Mozilla is bringing Firefox to Microsoft’s Windows store today. Firefox is one of the first third-party alternatives available in the Microsoft Store, and it’s using its own Gecko browser engine instead of Chromium alternatives like Opera or the many other alternatives that leverage Microsoft’s Edge webview.
Microsoft’s new open store policies have finally made it possible for third-party browsers like Firefox to appear in the Microsoft Store. While we haven’t seen Chrome appear yet, Opera was quick to ensure its own browser is also listed in the store.
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“Previously, if you were on Windows and wanted to use Firefox, you had to download it from the internet and go through a clunky process from Microsoft,” explains Mozilla. “Now that Microsoft has changed its Store policies, choosing Firefox as your desktop browser is even more seamless – and it comes with all the latest Firefox features.”
Firefox launching into the Microsoft Store comes just months after Mozilla defeated Microsoft’s default browser protections in Windows. Mozilla has quietly made it easier to switch to Firefox on Windows, with a one-click process that isn’t officially available for anyone other than Microsoft. Mozilla appears to have reverse engineered Microsoft’s ability to set Edge as the default in Windows with a single click, instead of the multi-prompt process that exists in Windows 10 today.
Interestingly, this one-click process doesn’t appear to work in the Microsoft Store version of Firefox. That means Mozilla either avoided submitting its workaround version of Firefox or Microsoft rejected it from the Microsoft Store and the company was forced to remove the default browser workaround.
Microsoft has made the process of setting the default browser even harder in Windows 11, and Mozilla has been trying to convince Microsoft to improve its default browser settings in Windows since its open letter to Microsoft in 2015.
Firefox is now available in the Microsoft Store for both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
