Rumor: Microsoft to push Edge updates via the Windows Store
When Microsoft launched the Microsoft Edge web browser with Windows 10 in 2015, it had high hopes for the web browser.
Not only was Edge designed to replace Internet Explorer as the default browser on Windows 10, it also was designed to be lightweight and modern.
While you can argue about that, fact is that Edge is a step up from Internet Explorer when it comes to web compatibility, and support for new technologies.
Not all was golden then however, as Edge shipped with a bare bones set of features; in fact, it lacked essential features like the option to import favorites, extension support, the option to save the download location, or support for a bunch of media formats.
Microsoft improved Edge gradually over time, and ran several campaigns on Windows 10 machines to convince users to give the browser another try.
Microsoft to push Edge updates via the Windows Store
Not all is golden though right now. Edge lacks behind for instance when it comes to browser updates. Edge updates are tied to Windows Update right now. This means, essentially, that Edge updates can only be distributed to Windows 10 machines via Windows Update.
While there have been plenty of updates for Edge in the past two or so years since the browser's official launch, most of them were to the Insider channels and not stable versions of Windows 10. In fact, Microsoft released only four builds of Edge to the public, with the last one dating back to the release of the Creators Update. The public release before that dates back to August 2016, and the one before that to November 2015.
If you compare that to the release cycle of any other browser for Windows, be it Firefox, Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera or you-name-it, you will notice that Edge is probably the browser with the slowest release cycle on Windows.
This means, for users, that feature updates, compatibility improvements, and all that good stuff hit Edge only twice a year or so.
According to a report on Neowin, this may change soon. Microsoft seems to plan to push Edge updates via the Windows Store, and not exclusively through Windows Update anymore.
But according to internal sources, that's all going to change in September, when the next feature update to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone 3, is released. Users will finally be able to get updates to the Edge browser via the Windows Store, which will allow Microsoft to add new features more frequently.
The benefit should be obvious: faster update cycles as Edge updates are no longer linked to Windows feature updates.
If true, the new system could be implemented when the next feature update of Windows 10 hits the floor in September 2017.
The move makes a whole lot of sense, as Microsoft will be able to push out Edge updates faster to the stable user base of Windows 10.
Also, it could improve the user experience on Windows 10 Cloud devices, as other browser's cannot be installed on these machines by default.
Now You: Would you consider using Edge if the browser would be updated more frequently?
My main browser is Waterfox and I used to use Chrome for GMail, YouTube and some other sites, but that has been giving me “Privacy error” blank pages lately so I shifted that group of websites to Edge.
Edge had already surprised me when it would allow me to download streams from some wildlife webcams that other browsers would/could not, but I wouldn’t like to have to use Edge for everything, due to lack of extensions and a certain clunkiness I can’t explain ;)
I liked it was announced that Windows Edge would be built to the web standards. I also liked it was being rebuilt from the ground up. Unfortunately, my issue with using Edge is that many websites have not also been updated to the latest standards. I still notice that when looking at the source code, many websites still have instructions for IE 6 and 7 when only IE 11 is the only one now supported I understand.
I don’t see a logic behind that. They can already push updates via Windows Update daily if they want. What would change with the AppStore?
Does the enterprise version even have an appstore? I know the LTSB version does not.
what does that even mean? i don’t use store and definitely don’t login to any account for the purpose of store (hence it’s totally useless to me because you pretty much can’t do anything without logging in)
Oh good then maybe Edge can be uninstalled without having to use wimtweak!
I use Firefox as my main browser, Chrome for Netflix and youtube etc, Opera to test various websites and Edge or IE11 when I can’t get some stuff to work on Firefox etc. I’m not sure I’m a one person browser anymore as each one has it’s pros. Also having 4 browsers means I can keep my favourites list shorter in each browser meaning less scrolling. I don’t have a preference anymore, so long as it works. I think I’m doing it wrong lol.
Didn’t they promise to do this with the current RS2 update?
Edge is a decent browser but not making the updates separate from the system was an extremely dumb one.
I will consider using Edge as soon as it has a Print function similar to the one in IE (identical would be okay, too). In the meantime, I am satisfied using IE.
I already use Edge as my primary browser on my lower-end Windows hardware. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc. are all laggy or battery draining in comparison to Edge on this lower-end hardware. I would certainly welcome a move to the Windows store though, especially when bugs and the such creep up in Edge and Microsoft waits until their patch Tuesday to fix them.
The better browsers give the user flexible control over the update cycle which is initiated by the browser. This seems like the best approach. Why is MS not doing this? MS doesn’t like to admit that their approach is not good.
Not sure why, but MS *might* be following the mobile way. On a lot of mobile platforms, the browser is part of the OS as well and thus an OS update is needed to update the browser (Android did do away with that ever since Chrome, but there are others where it’s still tied to the OS).
Lol, I’m on Windows 10. Not once I have I touched Edge. I care not for it when FireFox is 10x better!