Today, Microsoft announced details of its next major update to Windows 10, which is due to arrive later this year. The somewhat unimaginatively named Fall Creators Update will introduce the company"s new Fluent Design System, formerly known as Project NEON, along with a wide range of new cross-platform capabilities; the return of OneDrive placeholders; and a versatile new creative app that will enable users to "transform their photos and videos".
However, there was one announcement that we were expecting the company to make today which didn"t pop up. A couple of weeks ago, sources at Microsoft told us that it was planning to "unbundle" its Edge browser from Windows 10. That would have been a significant move, enabling the browser to break free from the operating system"s biannual update cadence, and helping Edge to narrow the feature gap with rival browsers.
But today, Microsoft told us that Edge unbundling is not part of its current roadmap. Following a session on Edge at the company"s Build 2017 developer conference today, a member of the Edge team told us that there are "no plans for [unbundling] right now, but never say never."
The news will come as a disappointment to some, who were eagerly anticipating more regular updates to Edge, and more frequent rollouts of new features. But Microsoft made it clear today that it"s current plan for Edge is to strengthen the browser by "doubling down on the fundamentals: security, reliability and performance".