WHY am I being FORCED to deal with Microsoft edge?

Yes, it really sucks when people such as richard000000001 tells people the truth about technology, not the lies and garbage that are posted in this forum. So if that makes someone a troll then so be it, as I can't speak for richard000000001, but I'd rather be a truthful person any day of the week than someone who spreads lies and misinformation. I'm thankful I'm in tech so that I can help others, you seem to know only how to toss insults and add nothing productive or sustentative to the discussion.

Bonne chance!

I'm sorry but you and richard are not contributing to the discussion and are intentionally being ignorant I must assume.

Let me simplify it before you try n' blame the people again.

Things were running fine for people before the update, people did not have their screens hijacked by an uncloseable window. (And the ability to close a window and shut down a process EASILY is something we have come to expect on windows, quite reasonably).

Some people have also found the new program, which is not intrinsic to the functioning of an OS is causing them problems, and are finding themselves to be now unable to uninstall it.

An uncloseable window and an uninstallable piece of additional software are two problems who we can only blame microsoft for.

They may be legally in their right to do so, although we do know they have faced lawsuits for updates changing your default browser before, so maybe they are overstepping a mark somewhere here, I'm no legal expert, but I can say that there are serious concerns from the perspective of programmer ethics, regardless of legality with these two issues. Now, please stop trying to distract and whitewash the situation around these concerns.

(On a further note, while I can't comment on the process of uninstalling edge now, I can comment that my laptop got hijacked by the uncloseable window, and while my desktop does have some unusual elements to it's installation, my laptop is in near factory-condition and is quite mundane in many regards, so the inability to easily close a window is definitively without a doubt microsofts fault. So that'll dismiss your "oh boo hoo you probably broke your registry" arguement)

Seriously, you say you don't try to shut down discussions, then immediately go on to try and shut down and whitewash discussions.

Quite correct.  It is obvious to me that most commentators on here are either MS employees or they buy into the MS system.  Most people I know do NOT "agree" to a MS license.  It is what is known as a "contract of adhesion" -- 

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A contract of adhesion refers to a contract drafted by one party in a position of power, leaving the weaker party to “take it or leave it.” Adhesion contracts are generally created by businesses providing goods or services in which the customer must either sign the boilerplate contract or seek services elsewhere.

I don't use Apple Laptops or Chromebooks because of their closed environment.  What the shills on here are blind to or refuse to acknowledge is that (a) a browser is NOT an integral part of an OS except to the uninformed; (b) until this recent forced EDGE intrusion in my life I was able to uninstall it, proving that prior point; (c) a contract of adhesion is not enforceable and can be broken IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to fight it; (d) I hope Australia or the European Union brings suit against MS to break this unwarranted tying of two unrelated products in restraint of trade.

I use Firefox and Brave as browsers.  They work quite well with MS products that I use, OneDrive and Word.  To say Edge works better with MS products is uninformed.  BTW, I have a 512Gb drive in both my computers.  But I am 84 and a volunteer tech advisor in my complex of 750 elderly residents and many have purchased what the stores sell. I personally do not want to have any of my drives filled with programs that I do not use or want, including Edge--which has copied Chrome and is now "almost as good" as Chrome, which I also do not use because of the practice to collect my browsing habits and sell them to advertisers.  I also refuse to use MS sign in, and even though I now have to use it when I first set up my computer, my first step thereafter is to shift to a local account.

You are either missing the point or intentionally obfuscating the issue, which plainly put is that (a) up until the last month it has been possible to uninstall Microsoft's browser and it is no longer possible to do so; (b) Edge is intrusive in a way that other browsers are not by popping up all the time with unwanted commercials for edge and an unwanted screen the purpose of which escapes me but it is as annoying as hell, and there is no "never show this again" option; (c) for those with limited SSD space on smaller drives, when another browser is preferred it wastes space that could be put to better use.  In the browser wars MS lost and like Trump is now trying unfair (and probably illegal) tactics to win (remember the litigation years ago that forced MS to remove Media Player from the OS?).  Time for another class action suit!

I lucked out with this. One of my currently active computers is actually too old to update to this point and the other one is a brand new custom build with nothing of importance on it yet anyway. And honestly, as a browser itself Edge Chromium isn't actually that bad (though I'd still take Vivaldi over it any day)

My issues aren't with the browser itself. It's the fact that Microsoft apparently forgot that the last time they tried to run an integrated browser and shove it down people's throats like this, it got them their rear handed to them on a silver platter by the supreme court. I'm referring to the Windows 95 + Internet Explorer lawsuit. The fact that it asks the user to migrate data and then ignores input and does it anyway is just sewage icing on a trash-flavored cake. Metaphorically speaking, stab me if you have to but do it while looking me in the eye.

Honestly, I wouldn't even bother with trying to discuss it here. I've already filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission and it's ultimately up to them whether they want to pursue this or not. It could lead to Microsoft being broken up, or it could lead to nothing at all. It's out of our hands.

The issue isn't whether to use Edge. 

The issue is that whether we want it or not, the upgrade pushes Edge in our faces and wastes our time doing it.\

Microsoft's usual execrable marketing practices.