Right on schedule, Microsoft is releasing a new build of the Chromium-based version of Edge for Insiders in the Dev channel. One of the most notable changes is that it"s the first Dev build to be based on Chromium 80, which has been in the Canary channel for over a week. The new build also has the new Edge icon that was unveiled over the weekend, though the icon is coming to the Canary and Beta channels today as well.
In terms of new features, there aren"t a lot of major changes in this release, since transitions to new versions of Chromium don"t typically come with many more new features. Nonetheless, there are some noteworthy changes:
- Added the ability for websites installed as apps to be restored when a browser session is restored after update, crash, etc.
- Added support for an upstream Chromium policy that allows a user to remember a decision to open a link using another application (for example, to join a meeting in Microsoft Teams).
- Added support for periods in single-word intranet URLs.
- Added the ability to delete Collections items using the Delete keyboard key.
- Added a dialog for when browser sign-in is disabled by policy.
As usual, the release does come with fairly long lists of fixes, one dedicated to reliability improvements, and another focused on behavior changes. Here"s what"s new for reliability:
- Fixed an issue where Edge crashes shortly after launch for some users if sync is enabled.
- Fixed an issue where right-clicking the back button crashes the browser.
- Fixed an issue where editing text in the address bar sometimes causes a browser crash.
- Fixed a browser crash when updating extensions.
- Fixed an issue where using the built-in abusive ad blocker sometimes causes the browser to crash upon launch.
- Fixed an issue where certain websites like YouTube rendered huge, making them unusable.
- Fixed an issue where print preview does not load.
- Fixed an issue where PDFs sometimes don’t load properly.
- Fixed an issue where right-clicking on a PDF sometimes causes the tab to crash.
- Fixed an issue where navigating to certain webpages with videos causes the tab to crash.
- Fixed an issue where Application Guard windows hang upon startup.
- Fixed an issue where all Edge windows open completely white with no UI, but disabling Application Guard mitigates the issue.
- Fixed an issue where certain DRM-protected videos don’t play.
- Fixed an issue where certain protected videos like from Netflix don’t work.
- Fixed an issue where tooltips don’t appear.
- Improved the reliability of history and favorites items appearing in the address bar suggestions dropdown.
- Improved the reliability of installation.
The list of behavior fixes is even longer:
- Fixed an issue where Single Sign-On stops working and users unexpectedly see a username/password prompt to log into websites.
- Fixed an issue where two Edge shortcuts are sometimes on the Taskbar after an update.
- Fixed an issue where Work profiles that were erroneously added to the browser were unremovable.
- Fixed an issue where Application Guard windows open when the browser is launched even though they shouldn’t.
- Fixed an issue where enabling Application Guard sometimes causes downloads to be blocked in non-Application Guard windows.
- Fixed an issue where the first run experience sometimes runs every time the browser is opened.
- Fixed an issue where the profile Settings page has no way for the user to fix an issue with their browser sign-in when one is needed.
- Fixed an issue where sync can’t be turned off while it’s in the “setting up” state.
- Fixed an issue where certain UI buttons show $1 instead of their keyboard shortcut in their tooltip.
- Fixed an issue where the favorites bar is shown when in full screen mode.
- Fixed an issue where Collections content sometimes gets truncated.
- Fixed an issue where Spellcheck squigglies appear in Collections items even though they aren’t actionable.
- Fixed an issue where an incorrect image is used when adding certain webpages to a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where clicking the button to open the text styles flyout in a Collection sometimes doesn’t work.
- Fixed an issue where text styling in a Collection isn’t applied properly when using the keyboard to do the selection.
- Fixed the text style dropdown when editing text in a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where Collections contents sometimes can’t be deleted.
- Fixed an issue where the cancel button isn’t functional in certain Collections dialogs.
- Fixed some issues with the Mac Touch Bar when working with multiple tabs at the same time.
- Fixed an issue where open tabs sometimes aren’t properly imported from Chrome.
- Fixed an issue where extensions aren’t sorted by name on the Extensions management page.
- Improved compatibility of certain websites with Tracking Prevention.
- Fixed an issue where Edge shortcuts were created in the wrong location in the Start menu.
It"s unusual for Microsoft to list known issues in the weekly Edge Dev builds but there"s a few of them this time around. For one thing, extensions from the Chrome Web Store aren"t updating automatically, but Microsoft says that will be fixed in next week"s release. Here"s the full list of known issues:
- Extensions that are installed from the Chrome Web Store aren’t getting automatically updated. We expect the fix for this issue to be in today’s Canary and next week’s Dev.
- The fix for the issue where Edge’s first launch leads to a blank white window didn’t make it into this week’s build. We now expect it next week.
- There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it. In another, restarting the browser fixes it.
- At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents.
- Some users were still seeing screenshots that are automatically taken by the feedback tool turn out garbled or all black. Another potential fix for this is expected next week.
- Jumplist entries are not consistent between the Start Menu and the Task Bar for some users. We believe this is due to the shortcut on the Start Menu not getting migrated properly after an Edge update and are working on a fix.
- Sometimes the browser will appear to not respond to any user input (clicking or scrolling in webpages doesn’t do anything, hovering over UI doesn’t make it change), but clicking on certain buttons still works (like the … menu). The cause of this is due to an error in the GPU process, and opening the browser task manager (right-click near the window minimize/maximize/close buttons or hit shift+esc on the keyboard) will open a window that will allow you to end the GPU process, which will fix the issue.
The latest build of Edge Dev is rolling out right now and should be available to everyone soon. If you"re not testing the Chromium-based Edge yet, you can now get the release candidate for the stable release, which is now available in the Beta channel. The stable version will officially launch on January 15.