Official Microsoft Edge Preview builds available
Microsoft has just unveiled official preview builds of the upcoming Microsoft Edge web browser that is based on Chromium.
Interested users can head over to the Microsoft Edge Insider website to download Beta, Dev, and Canary builds of the upcoming version of Microsoft Edge for Windows 10.
Some restrictions apply currently. The builds are only available for Windows 10 at the time. Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and Mac OS X builds will "come soon" according to the download page; no word on Linux builds at this point in time. Beta Channel builds will come soon for Windows 10 as well.
Tip: Web developers may want to check out the Microsoft Edge Dev blog post that reveals developer related information, e.g. features or how devs may contribute.
The different Microsoft Edge channels
Microsoft is following Google's example when it comes to the available channels. Current builds are available for the Beta, Dev and Canary development channels. These replicate, more or less, the channels that Google Chrome is distributed for.
The core difference between the different versions of Edge is the frequency of releases.
- Microsoft Edge Beta Channel -- Updated every 6 weeks.
- Microsoft Edge Dev channel -- Updated weekly.
- Microsoft Edge Canary channel -- Updated daily.
Canary is the cutting edge version of Microsoft Edge. It features the latest changes first and is the most unstable of the builds because of that.
You can download and install different channel versions of Edge and use them side by side, e.g. for testing. All versions of the Chromium-based Edge that you can download currently are development builds. While they should work fine on production machines, it is recommended to use safeguards, e.g. backups, or install these on non-production machines or virtual machines.
The new Edge
The Canary build of the first version of Microsoft Edge that Microsoft released has the build 75.0.121.1. The latest leaked build's version was lower than that but the feature set is very similar to that build. You can check out our initial review of the Chromium-based Edge browser here.
Sync, one of the main features that did not work in the leaked build of Edge is still not working, at least not on the machine I tested the feature on. Microsoft's What's New page asks testers to give it a try though.
A click on the Sync icon and the selection of Sign In opens a new window shortly but closes it shortly thereafter without error message or option to start the sync process.
Microsoft lists some known issues for these early builds:
- Sync works only for Microsoft accounts, not for work or school accounts.
- Sync supports only favorites syncing, Microsoft promises to add history, password, and form syncing support.
- Sync cannot sync between Insider versions of Edge and stable versions of Edge.
- Media Casting is not working yet. Selecting Cast media to device from the More Tools menu fails currently.
- Spellcheck is not available currently.
Microsoft added a feedback icon to the browser's main toolbar that you may use to inform the company of issues that you encounter while using the new Edge.
You can install browser extensions from Microsoft's own -- limited -- extension gallery or from the Chrome Web Store if you enable that first.
Tips to get you started
- You can enable the installation of Chrome Web Store extensions in Microsoft Edge by going to edge://extensions/ and toggling "Allow extensions from other stores".
- Change the startup settings on edge://settings/onStartup to load tabs from the last browsing session or a specific page or pages.
- Change the download directory here edge://settings/downloads and configure Edge to ask where to save files before downloading for extra security.
- If you don't want Edge to run in the background toggle the option under edge://settings/system.
- Shift-Esc opens the Task Manager just like in Chrome, but it is not properly styled currently.
- Media sites that rely on Google Widevine DRM will work in Edge, as will sites that support Microsoft PlayReady DRM.
The current user agent string for the Dev channel build is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/74.0.3729.48 Safari/537.36 Edg/74.1.96.24
The current user agent for the Canary channel build is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/75.0.3755.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/75.0.121.1
Now Read: How successful will the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser be?
For me, there is only one difference between Edge and Chrome that matters: you can block ads with Edge on Android, not with Chrome.
Martin, what do you mean “no word on Linux builds at this time”? Microsoft has said that a Linux version might come in the future: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/04/microsoft-edge-may-come-to-linux-eventually-just-not-right-now
I just go to chromium.woolyss.com and get the latest ungoogled works fast as hell compared to firefox
Looks good, can you install extensions from the chrome store?
actually i preferr the look of this Chrome like Browser than Googles own rubbish,
After using it briefly I like it.
User interface is very similar to chrome.
No thank you. I’m sticking with Vivaldi, and brave browser on windows 8.1. No need for the online peeping toms to know what I am looking at. They can keep Edge, no need to infect my computer with their own brew of malware.
As for linux, I will use other browsers aside from firefox and chromium.
“The easiest way for governments to manipulate big masses of people is to make them believe they are being constantly under survaillance [sic], so that they live in constant fear, as it would be way too difficult to target individual people on this level.”
Somebody’s been watching too many movies or isn’t reading enough or doesn’t practice any form of self realization. Governments can’t manipulate or suppress the masses; the masses manipulate the individual and suppress each other.
One, therefore, should learn by listening to others’ thoughts and ideas and understand the irrationality of all thought. Eventually, one achieves a clear mind and disregards opinions, beliefs, fears, wishes, dreams, hopes, desires, etc. because one cannot even assume the existence of the ego or the universe or anything though it may all seem so real.
Like the frightened child awaking from a nightmare who says, “It seemed so real.”
I got the developer build and haven’t found anything it can’t do compared to a chromium.
Google Chrome on my Windows 7 x64 ? No thank You !
Hi, Martin
do you Block Iranian users to access to this site? i need to use VPN for this.
No I don’t but this site uses Cloudflare, maybe it is blocking an IP range?
I have Windows 7 and it told me “There are still no builds for Windows 7, but if you leave your e-mail, we can notify you when they are ready.”
So what I did was:
1. Installed a Chrome extension to switch my user agent
2. Created a string for Windows 10
3. Downloaded Edge Chromium for Windows 10
4. Installed it
Result:
https://i.imgur.com/9KaMRPm.png
Allwynd, I see they fixed the bugs related to disabling desktop composition (which 7 is the last capable of doing so without breaking any OS functionality and with a proper UI switch for). They’re taking 7 support seriously, nice.
Hilarious. Good job, Allwynd!
Thank you for the heads up Martin.
Installed it, everything seems to work fine. No dark theme is a shame + Sync doesn’t seem to be working at all. Gives me ” Something went wrong
0x800706d9″ error code.
Now that is funny ;)
Instead of having all your browsing data sent to Google, now it can be sent to Microsoft!
I would say “go Mozilla”, but even they have been flirting with the idea. https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-tests-cliqz-engine-which-slurps-user-browsing-data/
To web browser makers who think they have the right to collect this ultra private information, we had a saying when I was in the fifth grade.
“This is an A and B conversation, so you can C your way out!”
Of course, I am A, and B is the website on the other end of the connection that I am talking to. It is even worse if the vendor of your device or the OS it runs collects web browsing history, because they can then associate it with stuff like your MAC address and/or serial number. They will swear up and down that they would never do this, but we all know what a corporate promise is worth! Sites running in a tab aren’t privy to that information.
Well, on this level privacy is defined as the absence of legally defined PII, and I think there is no real distinction between Google, MS, Mozilla, etc., they all siphon off everything they are allowed to get (and maybe a bit more) to build their big data dream.
But neither cliqz collects your personall browser history, nor do google and MS, they collect data for mass aggregation purposes. It all depends on how the data is prepared.
The really dangerous part about them having this big data flow is that they can understand how masses of people behave, which is way more dangerous knowledge than to know what kind if websites you as a single person browse. Analyzing how hundreds of millions of people behave makes it possible to manipulate societies on the broader level, because humans in large masses are extremely predictable.
This data is used by corporations to sell you more and turn you into a consumer, and by governments to sanitize the web and censor.
The easiest way for governments to manipulate big masses of people is to make them believe they are being constantly under survaillance, so that they live in constant fear, as it would be way too difficult to target individual people on this level.
No, it’s worse than that. Instead of only google getting hold of your data they now both will.