Microsoft Edge Stable

About this release

Edge runs on the same engine as every other mainstream browser, so pages render identically and the extension catalogue is the one everybody already builds for. What separates it is the shell built around that engine, which is aimed at people who keep sixty tabs open and need some way of living with them.

Vertical tabs are the feature most converts stay for. Moving the tab strip down the side of the window turns favicons back into readable titles, and combined with collapsible tab groups and workspaces it makes a long session navigable rather than a row of indistinguishable squares. Sleeping tabs release memory from anything untouched for a while, which is measurable on a machine with limited memory.

The reading and document side is unusually strong. The built in PDF viewer handles annotation, form filling and inking rather than just display, immersive reader strips a page down to text with adjustable spacing and read aloud, and web capture grabs a scrolling region of a page as an image or text without a separate tool.

Everything expected of a modern browser is present underneath: profile separation for work and personal browsing, tracking prevention with three strictness levels, password and payment handling, per site permission control and a task manager that shows which tab is actually eating the processor.

What it does

Vertical tabs

Tab strip down the side of the window so titles stay readable at high tab counts.

Sleeping tabs

Untouched tabs release memory and resume when clicked.

Tab groups and workspaces

Collapsible groups and separate window sets for different jobs.

Annotating PDF viewer

Markup, form filling and inking in the built in viewer rather than an external reader.

Tracking prevention

Three strictness levels with a per site exception list.

Web capture

Grab a scrolling region of a page as an image or as text.

Changed in this version

• Faster start on profiles with very large history databases.
• Sleeping tab thresholds are now configurable per site.
• PDF viewer gains better form field detection.
• Reduced memory use with large numbers of grouped tabs.
• Updated engine version with the current security fixes folded in.

System requirements

Install order

1. Unpack the archive.
2. Run the installer, which places the browser in the standard program folder.
3. Import bookmarks and passwords from another browser on first launch if wanted.
4. Set the tracking prevention level and default search before regular use.

Worth knowing before you start

File details