All about Technology: Microsoft is working hard on Edge browser

Monday, 25 January 2016

Microsoft is working hard on Edge browser – and wants your feedback

Microsoft wants to assure Windows 10 users that it's working on the Edge browser, even if some core elements such as extensions aren't in place yet.

Redmond wants to make itself heard following the release of the latest preview build of Windows 10 last week, which introduced one new feature to Edge, namely it now allows users to right-click on the back or forward buttons, whereupon a history menu pops up containing their most recently visited sites.

However, there were complaints about the lack of a changelog with the new build (and the bugs it has introduced – although they're to be expected given the new swifter pace of deployment in the Fast Ring Microsoft is aiming for), so a couple of Edge engineers have stepped forward to detail the changes which have been made to the browser since the big November update last year.

As Neowin reports, the list of changes is as follows:

Favourites and reading list now roam/sync
The setting to change the search provider is more discoverable.
There is now a "save target as" option to the context menu for hyperlinks
We allow import of IE favourites from a favourites location that uses folder redirection
Drag and drop support is enabled (the ability to drag files to sites like OneDrive)
There is a toolbar in PDF viewer with options to save, print, zoom, and see page numbers
There is now an option to prevent rogue sites from spamming dialog boxes in infinite loop causing denial of service
We restored the ability to open a new browser window when Microsoft Edge is already running, by choosing Microsoft Edge from Start Menu or by middle-clicking on Microsoft Edge in the taskbar
We provided an "Open Folder" option to the download completion notification

And of course, there have been the expected bug fixes and performance tweaks, plus the new change to the forward/back buttons which we've already mentioned.

Feedback is vital

Essentially, Microsoft wants to make it very clear that work is going on, and indeed that the company wants your feedback.

The engineers in question – Rajkumar Mohanram, Engineering Manager, and David Rubino, Senior Software Engineer for Microsoft Edge – wrote an article for the Insider hub in which they asked for feedback on the browser, and noted: "Microsoft Edge: Your feedback counts (really, it does)."

This is in line with Microsoft's new company philosophy introduced along with Windows 10, where it's making a major effort to listen to the user base and feedback on various features.

So, if you have a suggestion for Edge, then make it…

Meanwhile, if you do download the latest preview build for Windows 10 (11102), then bear in mind that if you're a gamer, there could be many complications with this version.