With another week comes another build of the Chromium-based Edge browser for Insiders in the Dev channel, and this time it"s build 79.0.301.2. While last week"s release was pretty tame in terms of new features, this version actually includes a couple of notable improvements.
For starters, Microsoft has a separate blog post going over the changes being made to a variety of form controls on the web in order to improve their design and accessibility. Microsoft says it"s been working closely with Google to make changes that apply to all the Chromium browsers without feeling out of place. In addition to new aesthetics, these new controls should provide better support for touch input.
Moving on to the regular changelog, there"s a slew of other improvements. Most notably, Microsoft has implemented the touch scrolling that"s known from the existing version of Microsoft Edge. This was a common request, so it should be a welcome change. Here"s everything that"s new:
- Added a setting to show or hide the feedback smiley face from the toolbar.
- The first round of Family Safety features is now available on Windows 10.
- Added an option to the New Tab Page for users signed into the browser with a work or school account to show Office content from their organization instead of news content.
- Added a toolbar to Reading View for easy access to Read Aloud and text viewing options.
- Added the touchscreen scrolling behavior that the existing version of Edge was known for.
- Added a button in Settings on Mac to open Microsoft AutoUpdate.
- Added right-click support to menu items on Mac.
- Added the ability to automatically remove extensions from a user’s device when they’ve been removed from the store they were installed from.
In addition to new features, Microsoft has made an array of fixes and smaller improvements, split into behavior and reliability categories. For reliability, Microsoft fixed a number of crashes, including some that might happen when watching Netflix. Here"s the full list:
- Fixed an issue where the browser has high CPU usage when idle.
- Fixed an issue where the new tab page sometimes crashes when scrolled.
- Fixed a browser crash when using the new tab page.
- Fixed a browser crash when using IE mode.
- Fixed a browser crash when using Collections.
- Fixed a browser crash when importing data from another browser.
- Fixed a webpage crash when viewing PDF documents.
- Fixed an issue where webpages sometimes crash when typing in passwords.
- Fixed an issue where Netflix shows error D7354 when trying to play a video.
- Fixed some hangs.
- Fixed an issue where attempting to print a webpage while it’s in Reading View only prints a single paper’s worth of content instead of the entire webpage.
- Fixed an issue where certain Read Aloud voices don’t work properly.
As for improved behavior, the list of changes is pretty long. Here"s what"s different:
- Changed the InPrivate icon into a square, as requested by user feedback.
- Fixed an issue where users signed into the browser with a personal Microsoft account are unable to sync favorites and other content.
- Fixed an issue where users with multiple accounts lose their account pictures on Taskbar shortcuts.
- Fixed an issue where the Taskbar shortcut sometimes appears as the default sheet of paper.
- Fixed an issue where the tab title in the tab band or on the Task Bar is incorrect if a PDF document is open.
- Fixed an issue where selecting large amounts of text in PDF documents doesn’t work properly.
- Fixed an issue where searches from the address bar are always in English despite the user’s language being set to some other language.
- Fixed an issue where Top Sites on the new tab page disappear or are reset after upgrading to a new version of Edge.
- Fixed an issue where translating a page into a different language and then back into its original language shows an error instead of performing the second translation.
- Fixed an issue where certain webpage controls like the calendar picker aren’t appearing.
- Fixed an issue where the feedback smiley face is removed from the toolbar when it shouldn’t be.
- Fixed an issue where the feedback smiley face isn’t rendered properly.
- Fixed an issue where hitting the ESC key on the warning dialog that appears when attempting to close the browser while a download is in progress closes the browser instead of just dismissing the dialog.
- Fixed an issue where the warning about closing the browser while there’s an ongoing download never appears again after it’s dismissed the first time.
- Fixed an issue where certain functionality like delete doesn’t work on the downloads shelf.
- Fixed an issue where it’s possible to sign into a work or school account using the wrong type of email.
- Fixed an issue where Single Sign-On signs users into the wrong account if they sign into the browser with a different work or school account than the one they’re currently signed into Windows with.
- Fixed an issue where autofill settings are unexpectedly turned off by default for some users.
- Fixed an issue where cookies are unexpectedly disabled on new installations.
- Improved text input in Collections.
- Fixed an issue where two scroll bars sometimes appear in Collections.
- Fixed an issue where uninstalling a website installed as an app from the Control Panel doesn’t give any indication as to whether or not it’s succeeded.
- Fixed an issue on Mac where clicking in menus sometimes doesn’t work.
- Fixed an issue where corrupted characters appeared in the F12 Dev Tools.
- Fixed an issue where certain icons are inappropriately mirrored in right-to-left language installations.
If you want to get the latest build right way, you can open the About Microsoft Edge page in the settings to check for updates. If you don"t, it"ll install automatically sooner rather than later.