Internet Explorer Archive
Microsoft is planning to release its Edge Chromium browser early next year with a new logo. The software maker is targeting January 15th as the release date for Edge Chromium, with availability for Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, and macOS. Microsoft is releasing what it calls a “release candidate” today, which should demonstrate most of the final work that will make it into the stable release in January. The new Edge will join a slew of interesting Chromium-based browsers, such as Vivaldi and Brave.
According to an entry in Windows 10 20H1 Build 18936, Microsoft has started working on a new change that would hide the legacy Edge browser when ChromiumEdge is installed. A new entry titled ‘HideUwpEdgeFromAppListIfWin32EdgePresent’ has been spotted in Windows 10 20H1 and the function could be enabled with third-party tool Mach2, but it does nothing at the moment. Microsoft seems to be really aggressive with this endeavour.
Earlier this year at its Build 2019 developer conference, Microsoft announced IE Mode for its upcoming Chromium-based version of Edge. Now, you can finally use it. The feature allows you to open a webpage in an Internet Explorer tab within the Edge browser itself. You’ll need to enable a flag called ‘Enable IE Integration’ first, and then when you have a page open, you can go to More tools -> Show this page using Internet Explorer to change the tab you’re in. As many of you rightfully pointed out the last time we talked about the new Edge, this might be the feature that will push a lot of especially enterprise users to Edge – something I clearly didn’t take into account.
The new Edge is pretty much Chrome with an Edge skin. It does all the fancy Chrome syncing, it integrates with your browser extensions and it works with websites as well as Chrome does. Now, here’s where it gets dicey on the appeal. See, let’s say you have two products. Product A which you’ve used for a long time and like, and Product B, which is new. Product B is the same as Product A, this is good for Product B, but now you have no incentive to change. If Microsoft Edge is now Google Chrome, then Chrome users have no reason to switch to Edge. It’s a bit worse if Product B is a rebranded version of a Product C which you tried and now actively dislike. Edge is Pepsi, and Chrome is Coke except Edge also used to taste like dollar store cola before so you’re not really sure you’d want to risk it again. I have the Edge preview installed, but I have to agree with the linked article – I really see no reason to use Chrome with an Edge skin. I used to use the original Edge because not only was it quite fast on Windows, it also integrated well with Windows both behaviourally and visually. The new Edge looks like Chrome, and just stands out like an eyesore. I doubt the new Edge will achieve much higher user figures than the original Edge, making me wonder if it’s even worth the effort.
Today we are excited to make preview builds from the Microsoft Edge Canary channel available on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. This rounds out the initial set of platforms that we began to roll out back in April, so developers and users alike can try out the next version of Microsoft Edge on every major desktop platform. …except Linux.
The bittersweet consequence of YouTube’s incredible growth is that so many stories will be lost underneath all of the layers of new paint. This is why I wanted to tell the story of how, ten years ago, a small team of web developers conspired to kill IE6 from inside YouTube and got away with it. I doubt many of us will shed a tear for Internet Explorer 6, but this story does illustrate just how much power and influence large technology companies really have. Google has repeatedly been caught using similar tactics to derail Firefox, and tactics like this will only grow more popular the more they see they can get away with it.
In December, we announced our intention to adopt the Chromium open source project in the development of Microsoft Edge on the desktop. Our goal is to work with the larger Chromium open source community to create better web compatibility for our customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web developers. Today we’re embarking on the next step in this journey – our first Canary and Developer builds are ready for download on Windows 10 PCs. Canary builds are preview builds that will be updated daily, while Developer builds are preview builds that will be updated weekly. Beta builds will come online in the future. Support for Mac and all supported versions of Windows will also come over time. At this point, the builds really do feel like Chrome with some UI modifications, so I don’t see any reason other than curiosity and developer prep to use these builds. Still, I’m keeping it installed to keep up with the progress, but at the same time, I’m surprised it doesn’t seem to update through the Microsoft Store, instead opting for its own update mechanism. These are the kinds of tiny details they ought to sweat, because the one advantage these application stores do have is centralised updating (like Linux systemshave had for ages).
Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge follow-up has leaked, and The Verge took a look at it. For an early version of Edge built on Chromium, Microsoft’s new browser feels very polished. It’s also very fast to launch and browse around with. If Microsoft can keep up this good work and keep Edge optimized in the future, I can’t see a reason to need to use Chrome on Windows anymore. I would never have recommended Edge before as it was often slow, clunky, and didn’t always work with websites properly. This new Edge feels entirely different, thanks to its Chromium backend. That’s odd, since one of the main reasons I used Edge for a long time was just how fast it was compared to Chrome. I’m not so sure I like the idea of Edge with Google’s Blink.
Microsoft is working on a new version of Edge that’s based on the open-source Chromium project, a move that shocked many. The company has internally been working on the browser for months now and, according to our sources, currently maintains two channels for the browser: a Dev channel updated weekly and a Canary channel that’s updated daily. We were recently able to get our hands on some screenshots of the browser in its current state, as well as some images of the new Microsoft Edge Store which will showcase the many extensions Microsoft can now boast as a result of the move from EdgeHTML to Chromium for its browser. Clearly still in a very early stage.
To continue the shift to a faster, more secure browsing experience, starting in the spring of 2019, commercial customers running Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard can begin using IE11 in their test environments or pilot rings. To simplify deployment, you will be able to download IE11 via the Microsoft Update Catalog. We will also publish the IE11 upgrade through Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) for all versions of Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard later this year. I understand that embedded and server users aren’t the kinds of users to just upgrade to the bleeding edge all the time, but the fact they didn’t even have the option of moving to IE11 (Internet Explorer!) seems crazy to me.
One of the big advantages that Microsoft has been promoting for its Edge browser is that it's more battery efficient than both Chrome and Firefox. My own anecdotal experience bears this out; although I use Chrome for most browsing, I've found it burns battery faster than Edge under similar workloads. Whenever I'm mobile, I switch to Microsoft's browser over Google's.
Microsoft's own figures use a video-playback benchmark, and the company has duly released a new comparison for the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, version 1803. Edge still comes out ahead - it lasts 98 percent longer than Mozilla Firefox, and 14 percent longer than Google Chrome - but it's striking that the gap with Chrome has narrowed.
I'm one of those weird people who legitimately prefers Edge over other browsers on Windows, and I can say that it's getting better with every single update. The battery life issue is a huge win over Chrome, but what's most important to me is that Edge seems to tax my processor less, and, of course it actually looks like a Windows application, whereas Chrome looks like an outdated eyesore that stands out.
For now, I'll keep using Edge over other browsers, but as always, I keep an eye on developments like this.
Good move, but they should just go the whole way.
Intel has been contributing to Chakra, the JavaScript engine for Microsoft Edge (and previously Internet Explorer), since 2012, bringing their expertise in web runtime development and JIT code generation. Recently, Intel expanded its efforts by contributing to the larger Microsoft Edge codebase, specifically focused in the areas of graphics and performance optimizations. Intel has been a major contributor to open source browser engines such as WebKit, Blink, and Gecko, and with our expanded collaboration, they are now directly contributing to the Microsoft Edge codebase to deliver an improved browsing experience for Windows 10.
While this is very interesting, instead of working with just a few partners, Microsoft should've just opened the code for their new rendering engine altogether. At this point, it makes little sense to keep this kind of important code closed.
When it comes to open source, the new Microsoft is only a little bit new.
Microsoft first revealed its new browser plans back in January. Known as Project Spartan initially, Microsoft is revealing today that the company will use the Microsoft Edge name for its new browser in Windows 10. The Edge naming won’t surprise many as it’s the same moniker given to the new rendering engine (EdgeHTML) that Microsoft is using for its Windows 10 browser.
I liked the name Spartan, but alas.
In recent releases, we've talked often about our goal to bring the team and technologies behind our web platform closer to the community of developers and other vendors who are also working to move the Web forward. This has been a driving motivation behind our emphasis on providing better developer tools, resources for cross-browser testing, and more ways than ever to interact with the "Project Spartan" team.
In the same spirit of openness, we've been making changes internally to allow other major Web entities to contribute to the growth of our platform, as well as to allow our team to give back to the Web. In the coming months we'll be sharing some of these stories, beginning with today's look at how Adobe's Web Platform Team has helped us make key improvements for a more expressive Web experience in Windows 10.
Why don't they just do it right from the get-go, bite the bullet, and release their new engine as open source? Why this kinda stuff where only big players get to maybe possibly contribute? What's the point?
The Korean government has finally announced its plans to start removing the troublesome ActiveX software from public websites later this month in order to create a more user-friendly Internet environment.
For long, this tech-savvy country has been stuck in a time warp with its slavish dependence on Internet Explorer.
ActiveX is an ancient piece of technology that is still prominent in South Korea. It has its multiple problems that sometimes bring down the whole banking system or the public service system every year. The good news is that it will finally be over according to this news.
While Microsoft has dropped hints that the Internet Explorer brand is going away, the software maker has now confirmed that it will use a new name for its upcoming browser successor, codenamed Project Spartan. Speaking at Microsoft Convergence yesterday, Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela revealed that the company is currently working on a new name and brand. "We're now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," said Capossela. "We'll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we'll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing."
The only sensible move. The Internet Explorer name is tainted far, far beyond repair.
Neowin has learned a bit more about these extensions and how Microsoft plans to make its browser attractive for developers. Spartan will be able to use Chrome extensions and, while we are not sure if they will work 100% natively, the way extensions have been implemented is nearly identical to that of Chrome which will make it a simple process for developers to make their extensions work on Spartan.
Interesting. I'm not a heavy extensions users - FlashBlock and AdBlock - but I know many people are.
The shots also show that the desktop side of Windows 10 will have a completely new theme - very flat and Metro. I like it.
Spartan is still going to use Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine and Microsoft's Trident rendering engine (not WebKit), sources say. As Neowin's Brad Sams reported back in September, the coming browser will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox and will support extensions. Sams also reported on December 29 that Microsoft has two different versions of Trident in the works, which also seemingly supports the claim that the company has two different Trident-based browsers.
However, if my sources are right, Spartan is not IE 12. Instead, Spartan is a new, light-weight browser Microsoft is building.
Windows 10 (at least the desktop version) will ship with both Spartan and IE 11, my sources say. IE 11 will be there for backward-compatibility's sake. Spartan will be available for both desktop and mobile (phone/tablet) versions of Windows 10, sources say.
I'm guessing not having to worry about supporting websites built for older versions of IE will make development a lot easier, and the change in name is a huge PR bonus.Shipping two browsers on Windows 10 seems a bit... Well, I don't know, convoluted. Hopefully we'll be able to kick IE right off our computers.
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