Items tagged with EDGE
For the three of you out there running Microsoft's Edge browser (kidding!), some debatable privacy concerns have been raised into what information the SmartScreen feature is sharing (not kidding). In certain situations, Edge sends out URLs users have visited, and also their unique SIDs (Security Identifiers). Security researcher Matt Weeks brought the issue to attention over the weekend in a Twitter post, noting the transmission of "your very non-anonymous" SID. In addition, a screenshot he posted shows a URL he visited in plain text, as opposed to being hashed. 😱 Edge apparently sends the full URL of pages you visit (minus a few popular sites) to Microsoft. And, in contrast to documentation,...
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Microsoft is in the process of rebuilding its Edge browser around Chromium, the same open source project that powers Google's own Chrome browser. The transition will not happen overnight—Microsoft said in December that the move will happen over the "next year or so," with no specific date mentioned. That said, testing has already begun, and you can kick the rebuilt browser's tires right now, if you want. Just as Microsoft does with Windows, it is testing new builds of its rebuilt Edge browser through an Insider program. "Calling all developers and tinkerers: your voices will help us shape the next version of Microsoft Edge. Sign up to be the first to know when preview builds are available,"...
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Microsoft Edge is often regarded as the black sheep of web browsers. Although it has been praised for its speed and battery life benefits over some competitors, many have lamented its lack of features and compatibility. These complaints may soon be resolved, however. This past December, Microsoft announced that Edge would be rebuilt using Google Chromium. The latest preview of the new Chromium-based Edge features extensions, dark mode, and a handful of performance improvements. Brad Sams of Thurrott was able to get his hands on the new Edge browser. He remarked that the browser “feels a lot like Chrome with Microsoft polish on top of it.” The web browser is not quite ready to...
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Microsoft is rebuilding its Edge browser around the same rendering and JavaScript engines that drive Google's Chrome browser, a move that could see a public release by the end of the year. In the meantime, development has already begun. As such, the inevitable leaks have started rolling in, giving us an early glimpse of Edge in its reborn form. Click to Enlarge (Source: Neowin) As currently constructed, Edge is powered by EdgeHTML (rendering) and Chakra (JavaScript). However, Microsoft made the surprise announcement in December that it was gutting Edge and moving to Chromium, the same open source platform that powers Chrome, which will see Blink and V8 replace EdgeHTML and Chakra, respectively....
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There are mixed opinions on Microsoft's decision to rebuild its Edge browser around Chromium, the same open source platform that powers Google's own Chrome browser. For at least one Microsoft programmer, however, the decision is not only the right one for Edge, but Mozilla should "get down from its philosophical ivory tower" and do the same thing with Firefox. Microsoft announced its own plans to embrace Chromium in December, saying at the time that it would be a somewhat slow transition over the course of this year, with its first preview build expected to debut in early 2019. What this ultimately entails is ripping out its browser's EdgeHTML rendering and Chakra JavaScript engines, and replacing...
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Microsoft may have hoped that its Edge browser for Windows 10 would come to dominate Chrome and Firefox, but that never came to be, and never will, at least not in its current form. Instead, the Redmond outfit recently announced plans to overhaul Edge and rebuild it around Chromium, the same platform that powers Chrome. Interestingly, however, Microsoft can (and does) claim a victory over its rivals in the browser space. It has nothing to do with market share, as Firefox and especially Chrome are both more widely used than Edge, according to data collected by places like Net Applications and Stat Counter. Where Microsoft claims its victory is in battery life. "The Microsoft Edge team measured...
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Microsoft made somewhat of a surprise announcement last week when it detailed plans to overhaul its struggling (in terms of market share) Edge browser and rebuild it around Chromium (much to Mozilla's dismay), the exact same platform that powers Google's own customized Chrome browser. That's a big change, but will Edge support Chrome's extensive library of extensions? If all goes to plan, the answer is yes. Microsoft is rebuilding its Edge browser around Chromium That wasn't a topic Microsoft chose to address in its blog post announcing the upcoming change to Edge. However, Edge product manager Kyle Alden stated in a discussion on Reddit that his browser team has every intention of baking in...
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When Microsoft rolls out its big update for Windows 10 in October, there will be a new and annoying popup for users who try and install Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox on their machines. Word comes from beta testers of the update report the screenshot below pops up if you try and install a competing browser on your PC. The popup notes that users already have Edge as part of Windows 10, and claims that it is the safer and faster browser. While the popup tries to talk users out of installing the alternative browsers, it will still allow you to install the other browsers if you click the “Install Anyway” button. There is a button that allows users to open the Edge browser instead...
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Have you noticed that YouTube pages appear to load slower in Edge, Firefox, and Safari compared to Google's own Chrome browser? If so, you are not alone. Google redesigned the YouTube experience last year, but the site still uses an older shadow API that is only used in Chrome, which makes other browsers render YouTube much slower. Chris Peterson, a program manager at Mozilla, noticed the performance disparity and posted about the topic on Twitter. According to Peterson, the YouTube page loads five times slower in those other browsers "because YouTube's Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated Shadow DOM v0 API only implemented in Chrome." YouTube page load is 5x slower in Firefox and Edge than...
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Google's Project Zero team has publicly disclosed a security vulnerability in Microsoft's Edge browser for Windows 10 after Microsoft failed to issue a patch in the allotted time. The Project Zero team alerted Microsoft of a bug relating to the browser's Arbitrary Code Guard (ACG) back in November of last year. As is the team's policy, companies generally have 90 days to fix flaws that it discovers before a public disclosure. Image Source: Flickr via okubax In this instance, Microsoft requested and was granted a two-week grace period. Unfortunately Microsoft was still unable to fix the flaw before the extended deadline, so now the details of the bug are public knowledge. With that being the case,...
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Most PCs may run some variant of Microsoft Windows operating system, but Google's Chrome browser still rules the internet browser roost. According to various studies conducted by StatCounter and NetMarketShare, Chrome tightly holds onto nearly 60% of the market share. Microsoft Edge, however, barely claimed a 5% share, despite the fact that 91% of PCs are running a Windows OS of some version. Chrome enjoyed dominance this past year throughout all regions and over various device categories. StatCounter claims that Google Chrome enjoys a 53.91% total share, while NetMarketShare argues that the browser currently maintains 59.49%. These percentages vary by specific regions and devices,...
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Back when Windows 10 was still being talked about and had not yet launched, there was a fear that Microsoft was leading users into a walled garden, a fear that actually started with Windows 8. Things have not played out that way, though a hint of what that world might have looked like can be seen in Windows 10 S, a new version of Windows that is set to compete with Chrome OS in the education market. One of the restrictions in Windows 10 S is that Microsoft's own Edge browser is the default vehicle for surfing the web, and there is no way to change that. Likewise users are restricted to installing apps from the Windows Store, unlike regular versions of Windows 10 where users are free to install...
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Microsoft has a history of riling people up over the way it promotes its own software and services in Windows. One of the longstanding disputes is between Microsoft and developers who make third-party browsers. Microsoft over the years has been accused on several occasions of unfairly favoring Internet Explorer or, more recently, its Edge browser over the competition, and lest anyone think the matter has been put to rest, the co-founder and CEO of Vivaldi is pretty ticked off. For anyone who is not aware, Vivaldi is a third-party browser that has been referred to as the spiritual successor to Opera. It is led by co-founder and CEO Jon von Tetzchner, who also co-founded and formerly served as...
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At this point, Adobe Flash is pretty much the scourge of the internet. The long-standing browser plugin has a penchant for draining PC batteries, impeding overall performance and presents an oft-abused security nightmare. Adobe has already announced that it is sunsetting the plugin in favor or HTML5 and most browser makers have announced their intentions to end support. Microsoft is the latest to step up its efforts to rid the world of Flash, and announced today that Flash will be disabled by default in Edge with the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update. Microsoft hopes that this move will encourage sites to quickly adopt HTML5 content instead. “Sites that support HTML5 will default to a clean...
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