Microsoft is today releasing the last major Edge 94 build for Dev channel users, making it the first major version to adhere to the new 4-week development – and eventually – release cycle. Build 94.0.992.1 brings with it a few new features that are aimed at PWAs and UI controls. There are also a couple of new WebView2 APIs for the browser. Version 94 is also the version where enterprises will be able to opt into an “extended stable” release schedule that extends the release cadence to an 8-week period instead of the standard 4-week cycle.
As for this build, there isn’t much in the way of major changes, as the firm is close to promoting this version to the Beta channel. However, there are the usual lists of bug fixes and known issues. Another feature that is in development is a visual refresh for the browser, something that is currently hidden under experimental flags. The refresh brings rounded corners and a translucent title bar, in line with the Windows 11 design. It is safe to assume that the redesign will be out in time for the Windows 11 launch.
The firm noted that today’s build will roll out to Linux users sometime later this week and might not be available immediately, so checking for updates on Linux might not result in the browser pulling a new version today.
As for all that’s new with today’s build, here is the complete list:
- Added support for the Downloads popup in PWAs and websites installed as apps.
- Added a setting to control if Microsoft Rewards points are shown on the browser’s profile UI.
- Added the ability to open local HTML files on iOS.
- Added an API to WebView2 for launching the Browser Task Manager.
- Added an API to WebView2 to listen for browser exits.
- Added a management policy to control if the setting for Web RTC to Respect the OS Routing Table is Enabled. Note that updates to administrative templates or documentation may not be live yet.
- Re-added URL suggestions to error pages that result from mis-typed web addresses.
As usual, there are a bunch of fixes that are aimed at improving the reliability of the browser and addressing crashes. Here is the complete list provided by the firm:
- Fixed an issue where certain antivirus products prevent the browser from opening.
- Fixed a crash that happens when popups open or close.
- Fixed a crash when interacting with tabs.
- Fixed a crash when navigating to a website.
- Fixed a crash on launch.
- Fixed an issue where Guided Switch crashes the browser.
- Fixed a crash when saving autofill data from a popup that offered to save it.
- Fixed a crash on certain iPhones.
And here are the fixes that the firm is bringing to address changed behavior, with some fixes aimed at the mobile version of the browser as well:
- Fixed an issue where the browser sometimes shows a profile error upon startup and duplicate profiles in the profile picker.
- Fixed an issue on Windows 11 where windows are sometimes blank or white.
- Fixed an issue where searching Settings causes it to go blank.
- Fixed an issue where searching in Settings sometimes doesn’t return any results when it should.
- Fixed an issue where Collections sometimes can’t be opened because the entry is grayed out.
- Fixed an issue where the current page sometimes can’t be added to a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where the page size is blank in Print Preview.
- Fixed an issue where the tab audio indicator sometimes doesn’t appear when it should.
- Fixed an issue where tooltips like the URL preview sometimes appear in incorrect places.
- Fixed an issue where Efficiency Mode doesn’t work.
- Fixed an issue where spellcheck sometimes gets unexpectedly disabled.
- Fixed an issue where spellcheck sometimes can’t be enabled.
- Fixed an issue where passwords imported from other browsers sometimes don’t sync.
- Fixed an issue on mobile where signing back in to verify a browser account when prompted to sometimes results in an error message that it doesn’t meet the criteria to access the resource.
- Fixed an issue on mobile where certain websites can’t be logged into.
- Fixed an issue on mobile where certain sites can’t be viewed in desktop mode.
- Fixed an issue on mobile where navigations are sometimes inordinately slow.
- Fixed an issue where the mouse sometimes becomes invisible in IE mode tabs.
- Fixed an issue where WebView2 applications sometimes show an ERR_SSL_CLIENT_AUTH_CERT_NEEDED error after updating.
- Fixed an issue in WebView2 where SetVirtualHostNameToFolderMapping doesn’t apply to child windows opened from the WebView2 application.
- Fixed an issue in WebView2 where a “not working” dialog sometimes appears.
Lastly, there are a few known issues that the firm has been tracking, some of which have had their place on the list for a long time. Here is the complete list:
- Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube. As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed. See this help article for more details.
- Some users are still running into an issue where all tabs and extensions immediately crash with a STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_HASH error. The most common cause of this error is outdated security or antivirus software from vendors like Symantec, and in those cases, updating that software will fix it.
- Users of the Kaspersky Internet Suite who have the associated extension installed may sometimes see webpages like Gmail fail to load. This failure is due to the main Kaspersky software being out of date, and is thus fixed by making sure the latest version is installed.
- Some users are still seeing favorites get duplicated. This issue should be reduced now that automatic deduplication has been introduced into Insider channels, but we’re still rolling that out in Stable. We’ve also seen duplication happen when running the manual deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.
- Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other. Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices. This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag.
As mentioned earlier, this is the last major Edge 94 build for the Dev channel, with the possibility of there being a few minor bug fixing updates. Expect the build to be promoted to the Beta channel sometime next week, with the Dev and Canary channels likely moving to Edge 95.