Microsoft begins turning off uBlock Origin and other extensions in Edge
www.neowin.net
Microsoft is now in the process of turning off Manifest V2-based extensions in Edge, such as uBlock Origin. However, not everything is lost at this point.

The latest Edge Canary version started disabling Manifest V2-based extensions with the following message: “This extension is no longer supported. Microsoft Edge recommends that you remove it.” Although the browser turns off old extensions without asking, you can still make them work by clicking “Manage extension” and toggling it back (you will have to acknowledge another prompt).

At this point, it is not entirely clear what is going on. Google started phasing out Manifest V2 extensions in June 2024, and it has a clear roadmap for the process. Microsoft’s documentation, however, still says “TBD,” so the exact dates are not known yet. This leads to some speculating about the situation being one of “unexpected changes” coming from Chromium. Either way, sooner or later, Microsoft will ditch MV2-based extensions, so get ready as we wait for Microsoft to shine some light on its plans.

Another thing worth noting is that the change does not appear to be affecting Edge’s stable release or Beta/Dev Channels. For now, only Canary versions disable uBlock Origin and other MV2 extensions, leaving users a way to toggle them back on. Also, the uBlock Origin is still available in the Edge Add-ons store

  • TomMasz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    86·
    9 hours ago

    I had a feeling this would happen. I have to use Google services for a lot of things at work and Edge works fine with them. Firefox usually does okay, but not always. And now Firefox is requiring you to hand over your data to them.

    Can any Chromium-based browser refuse to turn on V3 or is it too baked-in without forking the entire project?

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      I imagine so, but the technical burden is at risk of growing over time as the upstream chromium may significantly deviate from or remove some of the functionality.

    • Billiam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      172·
      8 hours ago

      And now Firefox is requiring you to hand over your data to them.

      If you’re talking about the most recent news about the Terms of Service, that is a gross misreading of what they said.

    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      6 hours ago

      And now Firefox is requiring you to hand over your data to them.

      If you’re talking about the recent news, that’s not what the updated privacy notice says.

      Mozilla will be adding opt in LLM functionality to Firefox. It can use third party LLM providers. The privacy has been updated to say “btw, any info you give to this LLM will be processed by the LLM by a third party.” I.e. the LLM provider has the data once you send it to them.