Microsoft now offering chance to win $1 million or a car if you switch to Edge

A flashy Edge sweepstakes won't stay out of your way, raising new questions about how far Microsoft will go to get people to use its browser.

For the past couple of years, Microsoft has been trying different tactics to get people to use its Edge browser, such as the chance to win monetary rewards. However, some deem these strategies as shady, with a browser collective consisting of Google and Opera claiming that Microsoft is actually bribing people to use Edge. Well, it appears that this criticism has fallen on deaf ears at Microsoft, as the company has started showing another promotion that rewards users for switching to Edge.

I don't use Edge except to open PDFs, because I'm lazy when it comes to switching this particular default configuration. So, while I was opening a press release PDF from a firm, I came across a new promotion in Edge, taking significant real estate on my display.

Once again, it appears that Microsoft is offering massive prizes worth millions of dollars if you switch to Edge and continue using the functionalities integrated in it. The headliner, as can be seen in the screenshot below, offers $1 million dollars in cash, or a car if you win its latest sweepstakes. It also displays a QR code that enables you to download Edge on your phone.

Curious, I clicked on the terms and conditions, and this where another interesting behavior became apparent to me. The promotion does not go away if you open new tabs, it persists across each page unless you manually close it or snooze it, more on that later.

The terms and conditions showed multiple ways to increase your entries for the sweepstakes prize. This involves visiting the sweepstakes page, sharing personalized links to the page with friends and family, using the Microsoft Rewards extension, redeeming Microsoft Rewards rewards, leveraging the Bing and Copilot mobile apps, and trying Bing Image Creator, Video Creator, and Copilot Search.

There are other PC-specific ways to increase your chances of winning too. You can enable OneDrive backups on Windows 10 and Windows 11, set Edge as your default browser on PC, view the Lenovo and Acer Copilot+ PC product pages, use the Microsoft Store. And I am barely scratching the surface over here. There are tons of other ways too, involving the downloading of apps and games, and more.

The sweepstakes is open to residents of the U.S. and a few countries in Europe, along with Canada and Mexico. The grand prize is $1 million, but the promo highlights some luxury Mercedes-AMG cars as well.

Now, in terms of skipping the promo banner. You can either close it using the "x" button or snooze for an unspecified period of time. Additionally, you have the option to disable these "recommendations" (as Microsoft calls them) for a week, or this particular promo forever.

Regardless of the prizes on offer, many will consider this behavior intrusive, especially since it directly obstructs the browsing experience. The disablement of recommendations also doesn't give the option to disable all recommendations forever, just this particular one. You can expect some backlash to originate from consumers and other browser vendors regarding the latest "bribe" as this promo starts to appear for more users.

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Posted Friday 17 April 2026 at 7:39 am AEST (my time).

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