Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is a proprietary cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft and based on the Chromium open-source project, superseding Edge Legacy. In Windows 11, Edge is the only browser available from Microsoft. However, a bypass is available to open Internet Explorer.
First made available only for Android and iOS in 2017, in late 2018, Microsoft announced it would completely rebuild Edge as a Chromium-based browser with Blink and V8 engines, which allowed the browser to be ported from Windows 10 to macOS. The new Edge was publicly released in January 2020, and on Xbox as well as Linux in 2021. Edge was also available on Windows 7 and 8/8.1 until early 2023.
, Edge was used by 11% of PCs worldwide. In February 2023, according to StatCounter, Microsoft Edge became the third most popular browser in the world, behind Safari and Chrome, while as of 2025, Edge is second most popular PC/desktop web browser with Safari sliding to 3rd place.

Features

The new Microsoft Edge is the default web browser, replacing Edge Legacy.
In Windows 11, Edge is the only browser available from Microsoft. However, it includes an "Internet Explorer mode", which is aimed at fixing compatibility issues; it provides the legacy MSHTML browser engine and supports the legacy ActiveX and BHO technologies.
New Edge also has a new feature called vertical tabs which allow users to move tabs on the left side of the screen.
As of December 2022, there are over 9,000 extensions—called add-ons—available for Edge.
On February 7, 2023, Microsoft announced a major overhaul to Edge, revamping the user interface with Fluent Design, along with adding a Bing Chat button, which replaces the Discover button.
Microsoft also added compatibility for split screen, i.e., 2 tabs can be viewed at the same time. A new feature, "Workspaces" was introduced, which basically lets the user create different spaces for various things. These workspaces are also collaborative, users can invite friends or colleagues and seamlessly have completely separate workspace for collaboration.

Edge for Business

Starting with Edge version 116, Microsoft released Microsoft Edge for Business. A new business mode for Edge that enables end users to completely separates work and personal browsing into dedicated browser windows, in addition to offering other features aimed at admins.

Release channels

On April 8, 2019, Microsoft announced the introduction of four preview channels: Canary, Dev, Beta, and Stable and launched the Canary and Dev channels that same day with the first preview builds, for those channels, of the new Edge. Microsoft collectively calls the Canary, Dev, and Beta channels the "Microsoft Edge insider channels". As a result, Edge updates were decoupled from new versions of Windows. Major versions of Edge Stable are now scheduled for release every 4 weeks, closely following Chromium version releases.

''Surf'' (video game)

In May 2020, an update to Microsoft Edge added Surf, a browser game where players control a surfer attempting to evade obstacles and collect power-ups. Similar to Google Chrome's Dinosaur Game, Surf is accessible from the browser's offline error page and can also be accessed by entering edge://surf into the address bar. The game features three game modes, has character customization, and supports keyboard, mouse, touch, and gamepad controls. Its gameplay has been compared to the 1991 Microsoft video game SkiFree.
In 2021, Surf was updated with limited-time seasonal theming resembling SkiFree. Instead of surfing, the player skis down a mountain while being chased by a yeti.

Development

In November 2017, Microsoft released ports of Edge for Android and iOS. The apps feature integration and synchronization with the desktop version on Windows PCs. Due to platform restrictions and other factors, these ports did not use the same layout engine as the current desktop version at the time and instead use OS-native Blink and WebKit-based engines.
Codenamed "Anaheim", on December 6, 2018, Microsoft announced its intent to base Edge on the Chromium source code, using the same browser engine as Google Chrome but with enhancements developed by Microsoft. It was also announced that there will be versions of Edge available for older Windows versions, including Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, and macOS, plus that all versions will be updated on a more frequent basis. According to Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore, the decision for the change came after CEO Satya Nadella told the team in 2017 that the product needed to be better and pushed for replacing its in-house rendering engine with an open source one.
On April 8, 2019, the first builds of the new Edge for Windows were released to the public. On May 20, 2019, the first preview builds of Edge for macOS were released to the public, marking the first time in 13 years that a Microsoft browser was available on the Mac platform. The last time a Microsoft browser was available on the Mac platform was Internet Explorer for Mac, which was withdrawn in January 2006.
On June 18, 2019, IAmA post on Reddit, an Edge developer stated that it was theoretically possible for a Linux version to be developed in the future, but no work had actually started on that possibility. On June 19, 2019, Microsoft made Edge available on old Windows versions for testing. Then on August 20, 2019, Microsoft made its first beta build of Edge available for Windows and macOS. At Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft released an updated version of the Edge logo.
The new Edge was released on January 15, 2020, and was gradually rolled out to all Windows 10 users. The new Edge was also rolled out to Windows users via Windows Update. Windows Vista and earlier were not supported at the time Edge started supporting older Windows versions.
On September 22, 2020, Microsoft announced that a beta version of Edge for Linux would be available in preview form in October 2020. This comes after the company announced in November 2019 that a Linux version would be developed and confirmed in May 2020 that the Linux version was in development. The first preview build for Linux was released on October 20, 2020.
Full support for the new Edge on older Windows versions was scheduled to end on January 15, 2022, but was later extended to January 15, 2023.
On April 29, 2022, Microsoft announced integrated VPN support for Microsoft Edge, coming in line with this privacy feature with Chrome and Firefox. There will be a free version of the integrated Edge VPN available but is limited to 1 GB of data transfer.
On November 14, 2024, Microsoft announced that they will drop support for CPUs that lack the SSE3 instruction set with the release of Edge version 128.
As of March 2, 2025, the Edge Canary channel has begun automatically disabling Manifest V2 extensions, notably impacting the uBlock Origin extension. However, thus far, they can be manually turned back on, and this doesn't affect the Dev, Beta, and Stable channels. This move, part of the transition to Manifest V3, has sparked notable debate among privacy advocates and users.

New Edge release history

Version	Browser engine	Release date	Highlights
79.0.309	Blink 79	January 15, 2020	Initial release of the Chromium-based version Support for older Windows versions and macOS
80.0.361	Blink 80	February 7, 2020	Added native support for ARM processors The address bar now shows when a website is using the microphone and camera Added warnings for potentially dangerous downloads Extensions will now show their publisher Added support for restoring sessions of websites that have been installed as apps after an update or crash Added an option to the context menu to sort favorite folders by name Added a new setting to always use Strict Tracking Prevention inside InPrivate windows Extensions that influence the browser's appearance can now be installed from the Chrome Web Store Added support for importing Firefox browser history
81.0.416	Blink 81	April 13, 2020	Added keyboard shortcuts to access Read Aloud and Immersive Reader Added the option to hide the Collections button Improved favorites management with tools to remove duplicate favorites A message will show when another app installs an extension within Microsoft Edge Added support for Windows built-in spellchecker Added support for using cards that have been saved in MSPay to be used on webpages Added support for Dolby Vision Added support for Microsoft Information Protection-enabled PDFs Added 3D viewer in the F12 Developer Tools Added a setting to enable or disable automatic profile switching A dialog shows whenever a new data type is available to sync The InPrivate button now uses a blue background PDF Improvements: * Added support for highlighting text in a PDF * Added support for web-optimized PDFs that are downloaded one page at a time as they are being viewed Added a page to settings informing users on how to install Microsoft Edge on their smartphone
83.0.478	Blink 83	May 21, 2020	Future updates will roll out gradually to protect users from accidental buggy updates Improvements to Microsoft Defender SmartScreen Added the ability to exempt certain cookies from automatically clearing when the browser closes Added Automatic Profile Switching Collections improvements * The user can now drag and drop to add an item to a collection without opening the collection * Users can now add multiple items to a collection at once * Users can add all tabs in an Edge window into a new collection without adding them individually Extensions from both the Microsoft and Chrome Stores will synchronize with Microsoft Edge on all the user's devices. Improved message on the Downloads management page for insecure downloads that have been blocked Immersive Reader improvements: * Added support for Adverbs in the Parts of Speech experience in Immersive Reader * Added the ability to select any content on a webpage and open it in Immersive Reader. This enables users to use the Immersive Reader and all the Learning Tools, such as Line Focus and Read Aloud, across all websites Link doctor provides host correction and a search query to users when they mistype a URL Allowed users to save their decision to launch an external protocol for a specific site Users can set Microsoft Edge as their default browser directly from Microsoft Edge Settings, instead of having to search through the operating system settings Several DevTools updates, including new remote debugging support, UI improvements, and more MCAS warn scenario is now available
84.0.522	Blink 84	July 16, 2020	Reduced download delay for Internet Explorer mode site list to 0 seconds in the absence of a cached site list * Also added group policy support for cases when Internet Explorer mode home page navigations needs to be delayed until the site list is downloaded. Allowed users to sign into the browser when Microsoft Edge is "run as administrator". This will help customers running Microsoft Edge in remote-desktop and sandbox scenarios Added full mouse support when in full-screen mode. Mouse can be utilized to access tabs, the address bar, and other items without having to exit full-screen mode Added a custom nickname option to saved debit or credit cards, making it easier to distinguish and differentiate cards when making online purchases. Giving nicknames to cards lets the user choose the correct card when using autofill to select a payment method TLS/1.0 and TLS/1.1 are disabled by default * To help discover impacted sites, you can set the edge://flags/#display-legacy-tls-warnings flag to cause Microsoft Edge to display a non-blocking "Not Secure" notice when loading pages that require legacy TLS protocols. The SSLVersionMin policy permits re-enabling of TLS/1.0 and TLS/1.1. This policy will remain available until at least Microsoft Edge version 88 Collections improvements * Added a note capability allowing you to add a note or comment to an item in a collection * Added background color of notes in collections. Color coding can help organize information and increase productivity * Improved performance when exporting collections to Excel Storage Access API support, which allows access to first-party storage in a third-party context when a user provides a direct intent to allow storage that would otherwise be blocked by the browser's current configuration Native File System API support, which allows sites can be given permission to edit files or folders via the Native File System API PDF improvements * Added Read Aloud for PDF * When saving an edit made to a PDF it can be sent back to the original file instead of a copy * Added an option to translate in Immersive Reader. * DevTools now supports customizing keyboard shortcuts to match any editor/IDE, which includes VS Code
85.0.564	Blink 85	August 27, 2020	On-premises synchronization of Favorites and Settings Group policy support for trusting site + app combos to launch without a confirmation prompt PDF Highlighter tool Storage Access API Send to OneNote is available for Edge Collections DevTools updates * Surface Duo emulation * VS Code keyboard shortcuts
86.0.622	Blink 86	October 9, 2020
87.0.664	Blink 87	November 19, 2020
88.0.705	Blink 88	January 21, 2021
89.0.774	Blink 89	March 4, 2021
90.0.818	Blink 90	April 15, 2021
91.0.864	Blink 91	May 27, 2021
92.0.902	Blink 92	July 22, 2021
93.0.961	Blink 93	September 2, 2021
94.0.992	Blink 94	September 24, 2021
95.0.1020	Blink 95	October 21, 2021
96.0.1054	Blink 96	January 6, 2022
97.0.1072	Blink 97	January 20, 2022
98.0.1108	Blink 98	February 3, 2022
99.0.1150	Blink 99	March 3, 2022
100.0.1185	Blink 100	April 1, 2022
101.0.1210	Blink 101	April 28, 2022
102.0.1245	Blink 102	May 31, 2022
103.0.1264	Blink 103	June 23, 2022
104.0.1293	Blink 104	August 5, 2022
105.0.1343	Blink 105	September 1, 2022
106.0.1370	Blink 106	October 3, 2022
107.0.1418	Blink 107	October 27, 2022
108.0.1462	Blink 108	December 5, 2022
109.0.1518	Blink 109	January 12, 2023	Last version for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 latest update 109.0.1518.140 release September 15, 2023.
110.0.1587	Blink 110	February 9, 2023
111.0.1661	Blink 111	March 13, 2023
112.0.1722	Blink 112	April 6, 2023
113.0.1774	Blink 113	May 5, 2023	Improvements to downloads security Improvements to enhanced security mode Switch from Microsoft Autoupdate to EdgeUpdater for macOS New policy for PDF View Settings Updated Microsoft Root Store policy
114.0.1823	Blink 114	June 2, 2023	Added Edge Workspaces
115.0.1901	Blink 115	July 21, 2023	Added Microsoft Edge management service
116.0.1938	Blink 116	August 21, 2023	Support for Microsoft Edge for Business Added an Option to attach the Edge sidebar to the Windows desktop
117.0.2045	Blink 117	September 15, 2023	Added Microsoft Edge for Business Banner Added Autofill Autocomplete Deprecated Web Select Deprecated More Tools options such as Math Solver, Picture Dictionary, Citations, Grammar Tools, and Kids Mode
118.0.2088	Blink 118	October 13, 2023	Added Find on page New SmartScreen policy New Microsoft Edge Update policies
119.0.2151	Blink 119	November 2, 2023	Last version for Android Nougat Added Compression Dictionary Transport support Added Behavioral changes to the beforeunload event Improved Split Screen Restore Added Additional capability to manage sidebar apps Updates to Microsoft Edge enterprise sync settings page
120.0.2210	Blink 120	December 7, 2023	Added RendererAppContainer Updated the SmartActionsBlockList policy
121.0.2277	Blink 121	January 25, 2024	AVIF support
122.0.2365	Blink 122	February 23, 2024	Deprecated image enhancement feature Rebranded Web Capture to "Screenshot" Configured recommended policies in the Microsoft Edge management service Moved Managed Site Indicator Into the lock icon in the address bar omnibox.
123.0.2420	Blink 123	March 22, 2024
124.0.2478	Blink 124	April 18, 2024
125.0.2535	Blink 125	May 17, 2024
126.0.2592	Blink 126	June 13, 2024
127.0.2651	Blink 127	July 25, 2024
128.0.2739	Blink 128	August 22, 2024
129.0.2792	Blink 129	September 19, 2024
130.0.2849	Blink 130	October 17, 2024
131.0.2903	Blink 131	November 14, 2024