Microsoft Edge Chromium for Windows 7 and 8.1 released
Microsoft announced the official availability of preview versions of the company's Microsoft Edge Chromium web browser for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 today.
The Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser uses the same core that Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers such as Vivaldi, Opera, or Brave uses.
Microsoft released the browser for its Windows 10 operating system initially but it is now also available for Apple Macintosh devices and now also for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. A version for Linux distributions has not been released yet.
The official release of the preview versions of Microsoft Edge Chromium is the first version of Microsoft Edge that the company released for its Windows 7 and 8.1 operating systems. When Microsoft released the original Microsoft Edge browser in 2015, it made the browser Windows 10 exclusive.
Microsoft's strategy back then was focused on Windows 10 and feature limitations were one of the methods the company used to get users to upgrade to Windows 10 or select Windows 10 from the get-go.
Downloads are available already on the official Microsoft Edge Insider website. Just visit the website and hit the download button next to the operating system that you want to install the Chromium-based Edge on.
Only the Canary Channel edition is currently available for Windows 7 and 8.1 operating systems. Canary is the cutting edge development version. The Dev Channel version is available for Windows 10 already, and first Beta Channel versions are expected soon.
Microsoft notes that the experience on these older platforms is "largely the same" as on Windows 10 and that features such as the upcoming Internet Explorer mode will become available on Windows 7 and 8.1 devices as well.
The new Microsoft Edge browser differs in some regards from Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers; it comes with a small set of extensions available only for the browser and does a few things better than Google Chrome.
Microsoft has yet to reveal a release date for the final version of the new Microsoft Edge Chromium web browser.
Now You: Did you try the new Edge already? What is your take on the browser?
I love the edge browser .It loads quicker than chrome on my windows 7 32 bit version. However , like you wrote ,it has a limited amount of extensions.
I am just curious, why now? unfortunately Windows 7 is on its way out, I feel what some of the people are saying in this forum; the way Microsoft pushed Windows 10 (forced) on its customers and the constant problematic upgrades, is just downright wrong…
Bing browser.. not used even by Microsoft employees who they get paid to use it. No thanks.
A perfect example of too little, too late. And especially considering it’s a Microsoft web browser – a company I don’t trust the least bit these days.
i love the browser
also add an user agent spoofer extension to spoof chrome and to not have problems with google services
Maybe I am an outlier, but I don’t want Microsoft coming anywhere near my web browsing experience after what they did to convert users onto Windows 10, and the way Windows 10 itself has so many publicly documented problems regarding privacy.
Imagine is this goes well and the new edge gets the marketshare of internet explorer. activex and silverlight will come back and they will be exclusive to win10. Even now they have this windows 10 drm blob that works only with edge and edgium and makes 4k netflix work only with their browser. When microsoft has power, things can get really bad. This site “works better with IE and Windows”.
Is this available for 32 bit Windows versions?