Microsoft Details How it is Changing Windows to Comply with the EU DMA

Microsoft has created a Digital Markets Act compliance website that details how it is complying with this new regulation. The site covers both Windows and LinkedIn, but … we only care about Windows here, so let’s dive in.

“We have been diligently working to implement the DMA, engaging with the European Commission, and testing DMA-compliant features with customers and the industry, to ensure that we fulfill our obligations,” Microsoft head of DMA compliance Chris Nelson writes in a recent post to the EU Policy Blog. “Now that the compliance deadline has arrived, we are sharing the steps we’ve taken to comply, as well as our focus on ensuring effective compliance in the months and years ahead.”

Going forward, Microsoft will publish an annual DMA Compliance Report, based on a European Commission template, on its DMA Compliance website, and the first such report is now available along with a version specific to Windows. DMA-compliant versions of Windows 10 and 11 are now available to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) at no charge, Microsoft notes, and the changes it’s made to Windows are starting to roll out to existing installations. Microsoft anticipates finishing this roll out in early April.

Thanks to the legacy open nature of Windows, some DMA requirements didn’t require Microsoft to make any changes: Users have always been able to install apps in Windows from any source, including third-party stores, and app developers have always been permitted to have direct relationships with their own customers, unlike on Android and iOS.

Both other parts of the DMA have required Microsoft to make changes. Broadly speaking, these changes include:

• Users in the EEA can now uninstall Microsoft Edge and Bing web search.
• Third-parties can now add their own web search functionality to Windows, and can likewise add a news feed to the Windows Widgets board.
• Users who sign-in to Windows with a Microsoft account will no long benefit from sign-in pass-through, meaning they will no longer automatically sign in to Edge, Bing, and the Microsoft Start services for weather, news, and the like.
• Telemetry data collected by Windows about third-party apps “will not be used for any competitive purpose against the providers of those applications.”
• Microsoft will now disclose when it collects data and wishes to combine that data with data from other Microsoft products or services so that users can decline consent.

But the Windows annex report for DMA compliance provides much more detail about specific changes. Which makes sense, given its 164-page length. And if you’re interested in these changes, I strongly recommend taking a look. I’m going to need some time to go through this thoroughly, but this is a fascinating document with many screenshots that help describe the changes.