Wherever in the world you buy a Windows PC, regardless of whether you buy it online or in a brick-and-mortar shop, in all likelihood someone else has already decided which browser will be available when you first power on your device. That someone is Microsoft and that web browser is Edge, Microsoft’s own. This is because major Windows PC manufacturers are restricted by the euphemistically named “Jumpstart” program from putting your preferred browser on any of their devices.
What do we know and why does it matter?
Through Jumpstart, Microsoft is undermining browser choice at a critical juncture. As one commentator recently noted, the PC market (which is overwhelmingly composed of Windows PCs) is “experiencing its strongest momentum in years”. Global 2025 PC shipments exceeded 270 million units (a 9.1% increase YoY). Moreover, technological developments will only intensify the importance of PCs: IDC expects that AI PIs will comprise 93.9% of commercial PC shipments by 2028. As AI PC adoption accelerates, it is therefore vital that regulators prevent Microsoft from continuing to restrict competition through Jumpstart on the next generation of Windows PCs.
Many of the details of Microsoft’s Jumpstart program are hidden from public scrutiny. However, some details have come to light due to ongoing antitrust investigations into Microsoft’s practices
- Most major global PC OEMs have signed up to the Jumpstart program.
- Microsoft effectively requires major PC OEMs to set Edge as the exclusively preinstalled browser across their entire portfolio by ‘all or nothing’ discounts on the price of a must-have Windows licence.
- An OEM would lose the whole worldwide discount if they shipped even a single device preloaded with an alternative browser in a single country.
Under antitrust law, such coercive discounts are plainly problematic since they freeze out rivals – especially smaller browsers – from being able to compete on the merits for any slice of these important distribution opportunities, anywhere in the world.
And consumers lose out on the benefits of differentiated PCs. For example, OEMs are not able to innovate with niche browsing experiences out-of-the-box, such as a gaming laptop in Brazil with Opera GX preloaded or a small business desktop for Japanese SMBs with Wavebox’s productivity browser built in.
Competing browsers do not get a fair shot on any of a PC OEM’s devices. This is not because they are inferior or because they are less attractive to users, but because PC manufacturers are bound by restrictive contracts with Microsoft that prevent the preinstallation of rival browsers across their entire portfolio.
Regulators around the world are beginning to turn their attention to the Jumpstart’s harmful impact on OEMs, browsers and users. In particular, Brazil’s CADE has opened a dedicated antitrust investigation. Likewise, the CMA’s ongoing SMS investigation into Microsoft will cover “portfolio-wide incentives” that risk foreclosing competition and limiting consumer choice. The BCA welcomes these developments and urges other regulators worldwide to build on this momentum: now is the time to intervene to foster greater competition and user choice on Windows PCs.