When you click a link inside Microsoft Copilot, it no longer opens in your default browser. Instead, it opens in a built-in side panel powered by Edge's WebView2 engine - and Microsoft won't confirm whether you can turn this off.
The feature works like a mini-browser docked alongside your Copilot conversation. Click a link, and it loads right there in the panel. Tabs you open are saved with your conversation so you can return to them later. Copilot can also read the content of those tabs, giving it context from multiple web pages at once. Microsoft pitches this as maintaining conversational flow - you don't lose your place jumping between apps.
The problem is the default browser question. When The Register asked Microsoft directly whether this behavior is opt-in or opt-out, the company acknowledged the question but gave no substantive answer. Bruce Lawson from browser maker Vivaldi put it plainly: "If it's not opt-in, then it's bad behavior. Over the last 25 years, people have become accustomed to clicking links, and that opens their default browser with their preferred settings."
This follows a long pattern. Microsoft has repeatedly found ways to route web traffic through Edge regardless of user preferences - from Windows search results to Outlook links to widget panels. Each time, the justification is "better integration." Each time, the practical effect is the same: more Edge usage in Microsoft's metrics, fewer visits to whatever browser you actually chose.
The side panel also offers to sync passwords and form data, which means Microsoft is asking users to duplicate their browser data inside Copilot. For anyone already invested in Chrome, Firefox, or another browser's password manager, this creates friction rather than reducing it.
Until Microsoft clarifies the opt-in question, the safest assumption is that this is another default you'll need to actively work around.