Microsoft Edge 83 with Extension Sync and other improvements launches
Microsoft released a new stable version of the company's Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser. Microsoft Edge 83 is being rolled out gradually to all systems it is installed on. The company changed the way Edge updates are pushed out with this release by switching to a gradual rollout. Means: it may take several days before the new version of Edge is offered on a particular device.
Users who don't want to wait this long can check out our guide on updating Edge manually to get updates right away.
Tip: you can check the version of the browser by loading edge://settings/help in the browser's address bar.
Microsoft Edge 83
Microsoft Edge 83 Stable is a big update that includes new features and improvements across the board. Microsoft integrated one of the most requested features in Edge 83. It is now possible to sync extensions across all devices Edge is installed on.
If sync is enabled, Edge will sync Microsoft Store and Chrome Store extensions across all devices the browser is installed on.
You can check out the sync settings directly by loading edge://settings/profiles/sync in the browser's address bar. There you may turn sync on or off, and customize synchronization. The new Extensions sync option is listed once the browser is updated to version 83. Just toggle it on or off like the other options.
History and open tabs syncing is still not available in Edge 83 on the other hand and Microsoft promises that it is coming soon.
Cookie management has been improved in the new version of Edge as well. It is now possible to exclude certain cookies from being deleted when Edge is configured to clear the browsing data on exit automatically.
Just visit edge://settings/clearBrowsingDataOnClose in the browser's address bar to configure Edge to delete certain browsing data on close. You find the new exemption option when you enable the deletion of cookies and other site data.
Select add and type the name of a site that you want to exclude from the deletion; this is useful if you want to preserve cookies, e.g. to avoid being logged out whenever Microsoft Edge is closed.
Here is the list of additional improvements and changes in Edge 83
- Improved Microsoft Defender SmartScreen -- improved malicious site protection that redirect when a site is loaded, added top-level frame blocking to prevent audio and other media from playing on malicious sites.
- Automatic profile switching -- Edge supports profiles and it is now possible to switch between profiles automatically, e.g. when accessing a site that requires work or school account authentication while a personal profile is used. Edge detects this and prompts to switch automatically to open the site in question in the work/school profile.
- Collection enhancements -- It is now possible to add all open tabs to a new collection by right-clicking on any tab and selecting "Add all tabs to a new collection". Also new is an option to drag & drop a site to a collection without opening the collection, and to drag a selection of sites to add them in one operation.
- Immersive Reader improvements -- Support for adverbs in the Parts of Speech experience, and option to select any content on a webpage to open it in Immersive Reader.
- Set Microsoft Edge as default browser from Settings.
- Option for users to save decision to launch an external protocol for a specific site.
- Microsoft Cloud Access Security warn scenario is now available.
- Link Doctor host corrections launches to address mistypes.
- Disallow synchronous XmlHttpRequest in page dismissal.
- Dev Tools updates
- Remote debugging on Windows 10 devices.
- New and improved infobars.
- Color Picker can be navigated using the keyboard.
- Emulator vision deficiencies now available under Rendering.
- Emulate locales option.
- Cross-Origin Opener Policy (COOP) and Cross-Origin Embedder Policy (COEP) debugging
- Lighthouse panel replaces Audits panel.
- Delete all local overrides in a folder.
- and more
- 15 new policies
- AllowSurfGame - Allow surf game.
- AllowTokenBindingForUrls - Configure the list of sites for which Microsoft Edge will attempt to establish a Token Binding with.
- BingAdsSuppression - Block all ads on Bing search results.
- BuiltinCertificateVerifierEnabled - Determines whether the built-in certificate verifier will be used to verify server certificates.
- ClearCachedImagesAndFilesOnExit - Clear cached images and files when Microsoft Edge closes.
- ConfigureShare - Configure the Share experience.
- DeleteDataOnMigration - Delete old browser data on migration.
- DnsOverHttpsMode - Control the mode of DNS-over-HTTPS.
- DnsOverHttpsTemplates - Specify URI template of desired DNS-over-HTTPS resolver.
- FamilySafetySettingsEnabled - Allow users to configure Family safety.
- LocalProvidersEnabled - Allow suggestions from local providers.
- ScrollToTextFragmentEnabled - Enable scrolling to text specified in URL fragments.
- ScreenCaptureAllowed - Allow or deny screen capture.
- SyncTypesListDisabled - Configure the list of types that are excluded from synchronization.
- NativeWindowOcclusionEnabled - Enable Hiding of Native Windows.
Now You: Have you tried the new Edge browser recently? What is your impression of it?
Edge is better than chrome for privacy. Microsoft’s business model is selling software and google’s model is harvesting data for ads.
@Performant, no it’s not, actually it’s worse. Microsoft business model was to sell software long time ago. Now they rent software as SaaS and sell ads by collecting data from Edge, Windows, Bing, Yahoo, Outlook, Mixer, Hotmail and MSN. The same model of Google.
@JK, I never knew Yahoo was a Microsoft product.No seriously it isn’t one.
It isn’t, but they are partners. Bing Ads serves all Yahoo search ads because of the latest Microsoft-Verizon Media deal signed in January of 2019.
No, it’s not more private than Chrome:
https://betanews.com/2020/03/09/microsoft-edge-privacy-telemetry/
Microsoft is known for its disrespect for privacy in recent years (look up all the debates surrounding the privacy level of Windows 10, for a start). And Microsoft is in the ad business as well, @John has mentioned this here: https://www.ghacks.net/2020/05/22/microsoft-edge-83-with-extension-sync-and-other-improvements-launches/#comment-4463681
In case you are looking for a browser that is actually more private than Chrome, on the desktop:
– Ungoogled Chromium
– Iridium
– Brave
– Vivaldi
– Waterfox
– Pale Moon
– Basilisk
– Firefox (with modified settings via user.js, at least)
On mobile:
– Bromite
– Brave
– Fennec F-Droid
– Kiwi
@Iron Heart, that’s your other comment by John.I can’t see how you could provide that url
if it wasn’t you.
@Anonymous
In case you want to link to another comment, you can do that be right-clicking on the REPLY button and then pressing the menu entry responsible for copying the URL. Anyone can do that (not just the one the post originates from), it took me a while to find out as well.
@Anonymous
Providing a URL which proves that Edge is even worse than Chrome for privacy is not hard, just google „Edge bad privacy“ and numerous websites will be coming up, I just picked one randomly which discusses the issue.
And no, I am not John. I am not writing under other aliases, why should I? One fully suffices and does the job.
Sorry for the off-topic but…
Transmission v3.00 is finally out. Yay!
https://github.com/transmission/transmission/releases/tag/3.00
After 500 million beta versions…. LOL
Good old Iron Heart, always on the watch! :)
@Lord-Lestat
As you know, logic is a sparse resource these days. Google is an ad company making money by collecting and analyzing user data, and is interested in shaping the grand design of the web. They are also funding Mozilla. Now, if Mozilla were actually doing their best to establish privacy, Google wouldn’t give them money. If they were actually trying to prevent Google from defining today’s web standards, Google wouldn’t give them money. This is reflected in Firefox’s anti-privacy default settings and their attitude whenever a new web standard is crafted, the attitude of idly standing by or applauding while Google does its thing.
One of the most egregious example of Mozilla backstabbing their users in favor of their sponsor was when they announced their intention to enable hyperlink auditing (ping tracking) by default in Firefox. This is a rather “in your face” case of being privacy- and user-hostile, so of course some users rightfully complained. You wanna know what Mozilla’s sad excuse was? “If we do not allow a performant way of tracking, then they might find other ways that may impact the performance of the browser!”
Hello there, Mozilla, you are meant to constantly and at all times fight against any(!) form of tracking! That’s the expectation. Of course, the real reason why they wanted to enable it was that sugar daddy Google would have an easier time tracking the non-Chrome portion of the Internet population, the 2% or so of the Firefox user base (the people who defend Mozilla while actually turning their crap off in their own setup) who disable hyperlink tracking in about:config notwithstanding. Needless to say, actual privacy-respecting browsers like Brave, Waterfox, Pale Moon have hyperlink tracking fully disabled by default.
We could also talk about the key logger sending input data to Google that is the Firefox address bar, or Mozilla enabling all sorts of prefetching, so that the browser establishes connections even to links the user hasn’t actually clicked on, or Mozilla enabling all sorts of fingerprinting vectors which they could easily get rid of, or… You get the point.
It’s rather obvious that Mozilla is controlled opposition, but this is being ignored because of the “Google bad” meme and the habit of not thinking any further. The question should be: “Is the alternative any better?”, and when we look at Mozilla realistically, the answer would have to be a resounding “No.”
Edge Chromium is OK, I don’t think it will shake up the market share a whole lot. But it offers another option beyond Google Chrome. I use both Edge and Firefox daily and have avoided most Google stuff for years. I would have rather seen Microsoft and Mozilla team up to build a solid browser. Because we now mostly have two corporate titans developing Chromium and most browser using Chromium. We sort of have choices but more like one car model with different features.
So you are avoiding Google stuff because they sell ads and you are not avoiding Microsoft stuff and you even want a team up of Microsoft and Mozilla? Microsoft is also an ad company, they sell ads and collect your data. It’s just not their main income because they can’t beat Google, not because they don’t want to, because they can’t. They are making products with the same terms. In fact Edge is collecting more data than Chrome.
I am sorry but I don’t see any difference and why someone would choose a Microsoft product instead of a Google one for any reason other than fanboyism.
ads . microsoft . com
@johnIL
1) Edge is even worse than Chrome for privacy, objectively.
2) Why should Microsoft have favored Gecko? Both Gecko and Blink are open source and can be modified at will, might as well pick the more performant and more compatible engine (Blink).
3) About 80% of Mozilla’s annual income comes directly from Google, they are totally dependent on a big corporate entity, so they are not exactly an “anti-corporate” option. A real (“real” as in really independent, not being a leech) anti-corporate option would be Pale Moon, for example.
I am not against Mozilla just for fun, I am against them because the current Mozilla is undeservingly living off of a great legacy, a great legacy which they have destroyed. Todays’s Mozilla is Google’s lapdog and exists for the sole purpose of emulating “choice” (fake choice, due to their lack of independence), so that the cartel bureau doesn’t have to take a closer look at what their sugar daddy Google is doing.
I sometimes wonder how the Mozilla managers can take their paychecks directly from Google and still come out and say in all seriousness: “We are the independent alternative!” Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Download links :
http://dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/6c48f16f-736a-409e-99f2-7f6f6b1ca033/MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX86.msi
http://dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/f201d5b2-6909-4d49-9c8f-c93edf559b07/MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX64.msi
Why are you adding links to spyware here???? haha.
Microsoft or Google? no thanks Firefox ftw, great company and open source with no spying shit that M$ and Goolag have.
@jake
Yor forgot the „/s“, friend. Realistically, in its default configuration, Firefox is in the same league as Chrome when it comes to privacy. If you insist on using it, instead of actual privacy-respecting alternatives like Ungoogled Chromium, Brave, Waterfox, Pale Moon etc., then at least check out some user.js (zero user.js, for example) in order to somewhat reign it in.
Last but not least, since Google funds Mozilla (around 80% of Mozilla‘s annual income are generated by a search deal they brokered with Google), using Firefox is not the best way to show Google who is boss.
What a shame their billions couldn’t come up with their own browser code from the ground up. Pathetic, really. But what else would you expect from a mafia corporation?
They tried already and failed with their old Edge browser,but also you could say that Google contributed to that using questionable tactics:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-youtube-microsoft-edge-intern-claims
@bashful
Why pay to build something from the ground up (again), if you can simply modify something that clearly works better, and is free?
To do otherwise would be crazy. But then again, I take it you’re obsessed with that, again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Ha.
Suggestion: instead of only providing a direct link to the various settings, like:
“Just visit edge://settings/clearBrowsingDataOnClose”
…it’d be also helpful to provide the Setting path:
Privacy and services/Clear browsing data/Choose what to clear every time you close the browser
This will help train the user to easily locate it the next time, because remembering these URLs is impossible.
I could not get Edge 81 to update so I installed latest Edge 83 beta and deleted Edge 81 from control panel. However I still use latest Chrome x64 beta as my default browser – looks like a horse race to date.
@chesscanoe
Using both Chrome and Edge…
„Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look to the sky with hope in his eyes! And let this day be forever cursed by we who ready to wake…the Data Kraken!“
– Yours sincerely, the Data Jones.
LOL @ Iron Heart