Microsoft Edge 81.0.416.53 Stable out with many changes

Microsoft released a new stable version of the company's Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser yesterday evening. The release is already available and should be picked up automatically on most systems. Users may download the new version from the official download site as well to install it manually.
Tip: load edge://settings/help using the browser's address bar to display the current version and run an update check.
Microsoft announced on March 31, 2020 that it would skip the release of version 82 as well (Google announced that it would do so some time ago). Edge 81 will therefore be upgraded to Edge 83 eventually.
Microsoft Edge 81 Stable
The changelog highlights many new and improved features. You can check it out on Microsoft's Docs website if you want to read it in its entirety.
Here are the highlights:
- The Collections feature has landed in Edge Stable. Collections allow Edge users to add webpages to groups, e.g. travel, job, or shopping, to keep them all in one place. Users who have no use for collections may right-click on the Collections button in the browser UI to hide it from the toolbar.
- Application Guard Extensions support available in the container.
- Developer Tolls (F12) are localized in ten languages. Also, 3D View tool updated.
- Support for Dolby Vision playback (requires Windows 10 April 2018 Update or newer).
- New Favorites tool to detect and remove duplicates. You may access it with a click on the Favorites icon in the Edge address bar.
- Better visual differentiation between regular and private browsing windows.
- Users may now set a default profile that links should be opened in (configure under edge://settings/multiProfileSettings).
- Warning is displayed to users who sign in with a different account than the previously signed in to avoid unintentional data merging.
- Microsoft account payment cards can now be used in Microsoft Edge.
- Integration with Windows Speller on Windows platform 8.1 and above for better language support.
- PDF document reader now supports highlights, color changes, and the deletion of highlights.
- F9 shortcut to open the Immersive Reader.
- Ctrl-Shift-U shortcut to use Read Aloud functionality.
- New MSI command to suppress the creation of a desktop icon; MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX64.msi DONOTCREATEDESKTOPSHORTCUT=true.
Microsoft added eleven new policies in this release. Administrators need to download the updated Administrative Templates.
- AmbientAuthenticationInPrivateModesEnabled - Enable Ambient Authentication for InPrivate and Guest profiles.
- AudioSandboxEnabled - Allow the audio sandbox to run.
- ForceLegacyDefaultReferrerPolicy - Use a default referrer policy of no-referrer-when-downgrade.
- GloballyScopeHTTPAuthCacheEnabled - Enable globally scoped HTTP auth cache.
- ImportExtensions - Allow importing of extensions.
- ImportCookies - Allow importing of Cookies.
- ImportShortcuts - Allow importing of shortcuts.
- InternetExplorerIntegrationSiteRedirect - Specify how "in-page" navigations to unconfigured sites behave when started from Internet Explorer mode pages.
- StricterMixedContentTreatmentEnabled - Enable stricter treatment for mixed content.
- TLS13HardeningForLocalAnchorsEnabled - Enable a TLS 1.3 security feature for local trust anchors.
- ConfigureOnPremisesAccountAutoSignIn - Configure automatic sign in with an Active Directory domain account when there is no Azure AD domain account.
The policy OmniboxMSBProviderEnabled has been renamed to AddressBarMicrosoftSearchInBingProviderEnabled.
The two policies are still available but deprecated: WebComponentsV0Enabled and WebDriverOverridesIncompatiblePolicies.
Now You: What is your take on the new Edge?


Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.