Edge updates get rid of my default start page

I'm mainly a Firefox user, but use Edge occasionally for a few pages/websites that don't function correctly with Firefox. One thing I've noticed several times is that after an update to Edge, the default start page I had configured in Settings has disappeared and I'm greeted by some Microsoft page, and have to go back into Settings and setup the start page again. The most recent time the problem happened was today after the latest MS update Tuesday. Any way of avoiding this happening?

The best way i have found that helps is to just close the page Egde shows when it updates. When there is a larger update one see the page that presents new features, with a Next button to take you to the next page, etc. Many times things that will change are there, such as "..blah, blah, blah, use Bing as your search engine." and clicking Next now will change from what you had to Bing. It´s easy to just click on Next multiple times to get rid of it and thus miss the options there, such as use another start page.

This sounds similar to what happened to me here and mentioned again here.

The same thing happens with Google Chrome and also Brave browser.

Other people commented on having this happen to them on Reddit and months later I think I may have stumbled upon the reason why this happens.

Google apparently made a change to Chrome earlier this year (which then 'flowed on' to Edge, Brave and presumably other Chromium based browsers) which causes some settings to be changed back to defaults if an external program makes changes to the browser. And, with Chrome and Edge it happens without any notification or explanation whatsoever. Really helpful when you're scratching your head trying to figure out what's happening.

And the "external program" in my case is probably O&O's ShutUp10 which has settings for Chrome, Edge and Brave and I used it for all 3. Brave actually pops up a message saying "an external program has made changes to the browser and as a result some settings have been returned to defaults" (or words to that effect) which is how I found out about what seems to be happening.

Now I use Helium browser for the rare sites where Firefox doesn't work properly. I don't have any problem with Helium changing settings on its own, probably because there are no settings to change for Helium in ShutUp10.