Microsoft has released a new build of the Chromium-based Edge browser in the Dev channel, after the company took a break last week to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. Today"s build comes with version number 80.0.345.0, and despite having two weeks leading up to its release, it doesn"t have as big of a changelog as some of the builds we"ve seen.
This release does bring a few new features, including the ability to use the eraser side of an active pen to erase ink in PDF files. Some parts of the UI also have better support for dark mode.
- Added support for erasing ink using the eraser side of a pen.
- Added support for using the arrow keys and spacebar to draw on feedback screenshots in editor mode.
- Added SmartScreen protection from downloading potentially unwanted apps.
- Added Extensions and Collections toggles to the sync Settings page but keeping them disabled in anticipation of syncing for those data types being enabled soon.
- Added dark theme support to certain UI that appears when the browser is managed by Group Policy.
- Added dark theme support to the local new tab page that is shown when the device isn’t connected to the internet.
- Added a group policy to enforce whether or not headers and footers are added to printed pages.
As usual, this release comes with two separate lists of fixes and improvements, one dedicated to reliability and one for behavior. For reliability, a bug that caused the browser"s UI to freeze or go blank has been fixed after affecting users for some time. Here"s the full list:
- Fixed an issue where highlighting text on a webpage sometimes causes a browser crash.
- Fixed an issue where right-clicking sometimes crashes the browser.
- Fixed an issue where the browser UI sometimes appears to hang or turn all black, but it still responds to input and can be fixed by killing the GPU process.
- Fixed an issue where using Read Aloud sometimes crashes the tab.
- Fixed a crash on Mac.
- Fixed an issue where Netflix playback fails on certain machines.
- Fixed an issue where exporting a Collection to Word sometimes fails.
- Fixed an issue where adding multiple pages to a Collection from the same tab sometimes fails.
- Fixed an issue where exporting a Collection to Excel sometimes fails or overwrites an existing exported Collection.
And here"s the list of behavior improvements:
- Fixed an issue where users that are signed into Windows with a work or school account are unable to remove the “Work” account that is automatically added to Edge.
- Removed the link to Manage Favorites from the Other Favorites folder on the Favorites Bar.
- Changed the button in Settings that switches which profile is active to open a window to a new tab instead of to Settings.
- Fixed an issue where typing the address of a website that’s already been visited doesn’t properly autocomplete the name of the website in the address bar dropdown.
- Fixed an issue where some of the privacy links in the First Run Experience open in a new tab in the background instead of in a popup.
- Fixed an issue where clicking links in a Collection sometimes causes the Collections pane to show an error page.
- Fixed an issue where adding an item to a Collection sometimes causes a second empty card to appear as well.
- Fixed an issue where a Collection that’s updated in one window sometimes isn’t updated in another window.
- Fixed an issue where Collections that are exported to Word sometimes don’t have the images get properly exported.
- Fixed an issue where items exported from a Collection have an incorrect date applied to each reference.
- Fixed an issue where invalid URLs can be dragged and dropped into a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where uninstalling PWAs or installed websites doesn’t also prompt to delete browsing data for that site.
As usual, there are some known issues to be aware of in this release, but it"s a relatively short list this time around. Here"s what you need to know:
- The Settings page appears too big/zoomed in on certain machines.
- There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it. In another, restarting the browser fixes it.
- At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents.
- Jumplist entries are not consistent between the Start Menu and the Task Bar for some users. We believe this is due to the shortcut on the Start Menu not getting migrated properly after an Edge update and are working on a fix. Additionally, after getting the update for the new icon, there are still places on the Start Menu, for example when searching, that still show the old icon. Other places like the Task Bar may be able to be fixed by un-pinning and then re-pinning any Edge shortcuts that already exist there.
If you haven"t yet, you can download the new Chromium-based Edge browser from the Insider page, and you can choose either the Canary, Dev, or Beta channels, depending on how much instability you"re willing to deal with. You may also want to read about the recent improvements to tracking prevention in Edge.