Today, Microsoft released Edge Dev build 78.0.256.2. As usual, it's a weekly release, and it comes with a bunch of features that were previously available in the daily Canary branch. In fact, the blog post also makes mention of promoting these features to Beta once the next build is available, although that shouldn't be until around the first week of October.
This build does contain a few major features though. The Collections feature is now available, allowing you to make Collections of webpages, images, text, and links that you find on the web. All you have to do is start a new collection, and drag-and-drop content. It also includes native Share functionality in Windows 10. Both features were previously exclusive to the Canary branch.
Another key new feature is the abusive ad blocking that was added to Chromium last year. This is meant to only block ads that the browser deems as harmful, such as a pop-up ad that launches a half dozen new pop-ups when you try to close it.
Here's the full list of new features:
Collections is now available in the Dev Channel!
Added a button on the address bar to access favorites, as requested by you: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Discussions/Top-feedback-summary-for-August-29/m-p/829765.
Added support for Windows 10’s native Share functionality.
Enabled the built-in abusive ad blocker that was added to Chromium last year (for more information, see https://blog.chromium.org/2018/11/further-protections-from-harmful-ad.html).
Added the ability to export Collections to Word.
Added a policy to use two separate site lists for IE mode and standalone IE instead of having them share the same list.
Enabled caret browsing in IE mode windows.
This build also contains a ton of fixes. Here are the stability fixes:
- Fixed some issues where the browser is unable to load any webpages.
- Fixed an issue where two-finger scrolling on the trackpad sometimes crashes the browser.
- Fixed an issue where the browser crashes shortly after launching.
- Fixed an issue where Edge will crash on startup when used in certain languages.
- Fixed an issue where the browser will crash on Mac when signed in with a work or school account.
- Fixed an issue where Netflix videos don’t play due to a "Missing Component" with error code M7354.
- Fixed an issue where installing extensions from the Microsoft Edge extension store failed with the error “Package is invalid: CRX_REQUIRED_PROOF_MISSING”.
- Fixed a crash when opening an Application Guard window.
- Fixed an issue where webpages won’t load in an Application Guard window.
- Fixed an issue where Tracking Prevention causes some websites to fail to load properly.
- Fixed an issue where attempting to navigate forward/back using the swipe gesture in situations where navigation isn’t possible leads to broken scrolling.
- Fixed an issue where the Read Aloud bar sometimes disappears unexpectedly.
- Fixed an issue where two-finger scrolling on the trackpad occasionally stops working.
- Fixed an issue where the first run experience doesn’t properly import data on older versions of Windows.
- Improved the success rate of data importing from other browsers.
Here are the behavioral changes:
- Improved the contrast between active and inactive tabs and windows for better visibility.
- Fixed an issue where the wrong search provider keyword sometimes appears in the address bar when multiple search providers are installed.
- Fixed an issue where downloaded files sometimes aren’t able to be deleted from the pop-up downloads UI.
- Fixed an issue where the link to go to the site permissions Settings page from the Apps page context menu doesn’t work on Mac.
- Fixed an issue where the Global Media Controls button that came from upstream Chromium is present even when there are no tabs with media on them.
- Fixed an issue where the … menu in some Settings pages (for example, site permissions) opens offscreen.
- Fixed an issue where the PDF toolbar sometimes doesn’t appear.
- Changed the Administrator Mode popup to show in fewer scenarios.
- Fixed an issue where the dialog to restart the browser due to diagnostic data settings changes appears multiple times during a single browsing session.
- Fixed an issue where the active tab upon startup is sometimes a pinned tab instead of a new tab.
- Fixed an issue where images sometimes don’t get saved when exporting a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where images weren’t properly rendering in saved Collections.
- Fixed an issue where first-run options are shown that don’t apply to the current user.
- Fixed an issue where search engines changed by extensions aren’t properly shown in the address bar dropdown.
- Fixed an issue where shortcuts to IE mode sites couldn’t be created on the Taskbar.
- Fixed an issue where the download UI isn’t properly shown in an IE mode tab.
- Fixed an issue where using multiple IE mode tabs in a single session sometimes leads to all the IE mode tabs after the first one not persisting settings set in the first one.
- Fixed an issue where the Find on Page search box is too small for certain window sizes.
- Updated UI in the F12 Dev Tools to properly show Edge’s UA string instead of a generic placeholder.
- Fixed an issue where some strings in the F12 Dev Tools weren’t localized.
- Fixed an issue where using the F12 Dev Tools in some languages displays everything in English instead of the selected language.
- Fixed an issue where profile pictures for work/school account users sometimes are missing.
- Fixed an issue where adding and deleting profiles sometimes leads to an extra profile being left over.
- Fixed an issue where the API to determine if Windows is in S mode returns the wrong value.
Finally, Microsoft noted that it removed some functionality as well:
- Disabled via a flag the Global Media Control button that was recently added to Chromium.
- Removed the prompt to restart Edge to install an update from Application Guard windows.
- Removed the profile sign-in button on Application Guard windows.
- Removed the default theme alert in the F12 Dev Tools.
- Removed some non-functional context menu items from Reading View.
- Temporarily disabled zoom functionality from the … menu when in Reading View.
If you're on the Dev branch, the new build is available now. You can manually update by going to Settings within Edge and choosing the 'About Microsoft Edge' tab. If you're on Edge Beta, that gets updated every six weeks, so you'll have to wait a while for these new features.
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