Microsoft Edge 142 is now available for download. Microsoft is rolling out the latest feature update for its browser, bringing autofill improvements, scareware blocker, security patches, and other changes.
Scareware blocker is a pretty big security update in Edge 142, which is aimed at protecting users from fake websites and banners that claim the user"s system is infected and they need to call fake Microsoft support. Starting with Edge 142, the scareware blocker is enabled by default on Windows and macOS (as long as you have 2GB of RAM and four cores).
According to Microsoft, the latest Microsoft Edge update adds a scareware sensor for faster detection so that the browser can notify SmartScreen about potential scams with no need to share screenshots or extra data. This enables SmartScreen to block harmful and scammy websites faster. For now, the new scareware sensor is turned off by default, but Microsoft plans to enable it for users with SmartScreen enabled by default. Note that the scareware blocker can continue operating and protecting you from all sorts of digital nastiness.
You can read more about the scareware sensor in Microsoft Edge 142 in a post on the official Microsoft Edge Blog.
Other changes in Microsoft Edge 142 include the ability to disable tab grouping when dragging tabs and improved autofill. Now, when you fill in an address, Microsoft Edge will prompt you to save it for future suggestions. Microsoft says that this approach reduces unwanted entries and ensures that autofill data is saved intentionally.
Also, Microsoft Edge 142 fixes 20 Chromium security vulnerabilities and one Edge-specific security vulnerability. You can find details about those patches in the Security Update Guideline here.
Here is the rest of the changelog:
Fixes
- Fixed an issue in headless mode which caused features like Print to PDF and Screenshot to not work as expected.
Feature updates
- Configuration update for MIP Enforcement. Starting in Microsoft Edge 142, new configuration step introduced to maintain MIP protections via Microsoft Edge management service. Existing settings remain active until admins choose to update. For more information, see Protect Office documents with Microsoft Purview Information Protection labeling.
Open external links in another profile when recommended by external applications. When Microsoft Edge is set as the default browser to open external links from applications, Microsoft Edge must determine which profile to open the links. Users can control which profile to use through the “Default profile for external links” setting. Applications such as Microsoft Teams or Outlook can also recommend a profile for the links. Currently, the user setting is prioritized over application recommendations. With this feature, the application recommended profile is given priority, instead of the profile selected in the setting. Admins can control the availability of the feature using the EdgeOpenExternalLinksWithAppSpecifiedProfile policy.
Announcements
- Important update regarding the rollout of the Auto-Open feature. We’ve identified an issue with the initial implementation of the Auto-Open feature—it didn’t fully respect user preferences, and some settings weren’t honored as intended.
To address this, the changes are being rolled back in phases during the next month to ensure all user preferences are correctly honored. As a result, users may temporarily notice a return to previous behavior where the sidepane opens even if the sidebar visibility is set to Off.
Here are a few ways to manage the auto-open experience:
- Manually Turn Off Auto-Open Pane: Users can manually disable the Auto-Open experience by navigating to the settings page if they prefer not to see the sidepane open for Outlook and Teams links.
- Automatic Engagement-Based Logic: If a user doesn"t engage with the Auto-Open experience and quickly closes it three times in a row, the feature is automatically turned off.
- Turn off Auto-Open Pane using admin policies: Admins can control the Auto-Open experience by using either of these policies.
- HubsSidebarEnabled: Set as "False" to turn off
- ExtensionSettings: Set the sidebar_auto_open_blocked flag as "True" to turn off
You can update to the latest Microsoft Edge version by heading to edge://settings/help. Alternatively, continue using the browser as usual, and it will update itself between restarts.