Microsoft Edge's new Performance Mode feature aims to optimize the browser's performance
Microsoft is testing a new feature in the Canary version of its Edge web browser. Called performance mode, it is designed to optimize the browser's performance.
The feature is being rolled out in Canary builds at the time of writing, We spotted it in Edge Version 91.0.859.0, the latest version at the time of writing.
Edge users who don't see the feature yet in the browser may launch Edge with the parameter --enable-features=msPerformanceModeToggle to unlock it in the settings of the browser.
Select Menu > Settings > System, and scroll down to the "Optimize Performance" section on the page to see if Performance Mode is listed as an option. If it is not, you may launch Edge with the parameter mentioned above to display it.
The feature is set to off by default, and you need to toggle it to "always on" to enable it.
The description provides insight on what it does:
Performance mode helps you optimize speed, responsiveness, memory, CPU and battery usage. Performance improvements might vary depending on your individual specifications and browser habits.
The actual tweaks that Performance Mode makes when enabled are unknown at this point. The only visible change is that the timer function for Sleeping Tabs becomes unavailable, likely because it is controlled by Performance Mode. It is highly unlikely that this is the only change, as it won't impact all the areas that Microsoft lists in the mode's description.
The feature is being rolled out gradually to all Edge Canary installations. Performance Mode is just one of the performance related optimizations that Microsoft introduced in Edge recently. Sleeping Tabs was introduced earlier to save memory, CPU and power by putting inactive tabs to sleep.
Closing Words
Information is scarce on Edge's new performance mode. Microsoft promises optimizations in all major areas when the mode is enabled, but does not reveal much besides that. Benchmarks may show how well the new mode performs in comparison to Edge's regular mode, and whether users benefit from enabling it. Since it is only available in Edge Canary, it needs to be considered in development at this point in time.
Now You: What are your expectations in regards to the Performance Mode? (via Deskmodder)
The better it performs, the more performance available for ad tech. Any software that works needs more ads.
Get a horse!
Big browser developers talking about “performance” is always a joke. At best it’s investing enormous efforts for barely visible benefits, when simply bundling ublock origin instead would be infinitely better for performance and for free. But usually it’s just using those few earned percents in speed as an excuse for further destroying privacy and user freedom. No more perfect forward secrecy in their chosen variant of TLS 1.3 and new supercookies at the TLS layer, proxying browsing data through browser company servers, preloading pages the user has not clicked on, limiting the number of filters that nuisance blockers are allowed to use, and dozens of similar items all in the name of often imaginary or even negative “performance improvements” that were never worth the damage…
Meanwhile my Waterfox Classic based on Firefox 56 is curiously as fast as Firefox 88 and other big tech browser clones with all their “performance optimizations”, and browsing is in fact faster with its many privacy add-ons than a vanilla browser from the big bad players.
“Performance” from their mouth is to be treated like when they talk about “security” while they are themselves the main attacker: they live in their poisonous ideological bubble where they see the world only through the prism of their own corporate interests, and would never imagine actually caring about performance and security as needed by the masses.
I’d rather wipe with sand paper than use Microsoft products. They’re such pussies, they couldn’t even develop their own browser, they had to take from Google.
As Jim Carrey would say, “Lew-Hew-Zers.”
There are obvious performance issues with smartscreen and strict privacy protection turned on. They should also solve these problems.