Microsoft Begins Testing the Automatic Rollout of the New Edge

Microsoft today pushed the new Edge to the Release Preview ring of the Windows Insider program, starting the first test of its automatic rollout of the new web browser.

“Heads-up Windows Insiders, we have begun rolling out the new Microsoft Edge to the Release Preview ring,” the official Windows Insiders Twitter account tweeted last night.

This is a big milestone. Microsoft released the first non-preview version of the new Edge back in mid-January, but only as a standalone download for the curious. The real plan here, of course, is to automatically replace the legacy version of Edge on existing Windows 10 installs with the new version, and while Microsoft previously said that it would do so via a Windows Update, the exact schedule wasn’t clear.

Now it appears that the new Edge will be made available to existing customers before or perhaps at the same time as Microsoft delivers Windows 10 version 2004. That’s a bit earlier than I had expected, but no matter: Sometime in the coming weeks, users on Windows 10 version 1803 or newer will see the legacy Edge replaced by the new Edge.

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Conversation 12 comments

  • darkgrayknight

    Premium Member
    26 February, 2020 - 4:56 pm

    <p>I have already started manually replacing the old Edge. It will be great when they push this for everyone. If we can just get line of business web applications off of IE, then we're getting somewhere.</p>

    • colin79666

      Premium Member
      26 February, 2020 - 6:10 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#523378">In reply to darkgrayknight:</a></em></blockquote><p>There is IE mode for that. We are piloting it just now with a view to a full rollout and removing Chrome from our estate soon. </p>

      • wright_is

        Premium Member
        27 February, 2020 - 3:27 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#523386">In reply to colin79666:</a></em></blockquote><p>Running a native IE in a tab is not moving LOB solutions away from IE. But I suppose it is a start.</p>

        • anoldamigauser

          Premium Member
          27 February, 2020 - 11:55 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#523644">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>If those LOB solutions still require IE, they are never going to be moved at this point. They should be, but they will not be.</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    26 February, 2020 - 5:37 pm

    <p>It made sense to me to wait until the extension sync is in the stable build before they flip on the roll out. Looks like Windows 10 2004 wil get it day one of release. </p>

  • lindhartsen

    Premium Member
    26 February, 2020 - 7:41 pm

    <p>Found it interesting that the install of this requires a reboot then does a full screen animated OOBE to introduce you to the new browser. Wouldn’t be surprised if a few people get surprised by this if they keep it for the final push out to users.</p>

  • robinwilson16

    26 February, 2020 - 8:49 pm

    <p>Shame they are not removing IE as well as legacy Edge especially as new Edge comes with its own IE mode where absolutely necessary. I still see companies setting IE as the default browser because they have ancient GPOs they have never reviewed.</p>

    • IanYates82

      Premium Member
      27 February, 2020 - 9:09 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#523441">In reply to robinwilson16:</a></em></blockquote><p>They are removing the app for legacy edge, or at least making it hard to launch. The engine will need to remain, as will the IE engine</p>

  • Daekar

    26 February, 2020 - 9:35 pm

    <p>I certainly hope our IT department is testing this. I've got the dev version installed for daily use, but they have the IE mode locked out. When it finally rolls out, they darn well better switch everyone over, I see people using IE as their default browser every day and it HURTS ME.</p>

  • RonV42

    Premium Member
    27 February, 2020 - 3:24 pm

    <p>Old EDGE and Chrome is gone from most of the systems I manage for my family and extended family. The movement to EDGE on Chromium has been one of the most easiest transitions I have worked with. I am just waiting for Google to do something dumb that steals MS victory away from this.</p>

  • ontariopundit

    27 February, 2020 - 4:51 pm

    <p>While I heavily dislike the existing Edge, there is one situation in which it is the superior browser on my TV laptop: Disney+.</p><p><br></p><p>For whatever reason, Disney+ suffers from buffering problems on Google Chrome (on a variety of devices) and brings the processor on that laptop to its knees with Mozilla Firefox (it's an i3 from 2012 with 6 GB of RAM and an SSD). It was only under the (old) Edge that Disney+ was actually usable.</p><p><br></p><p>But, ultimately it doesn't matter because we got rid of Disney+ after a month. There was almost nothing on there that we wanted to watch (again), and we have three kids under the age of 9 in the house :).</p><p><br></p><p>Maybe when the next season of Mandelorian is complete I'll sign up for a one month subscription (or, simply rent it from iTunes or Google… makes more sense than messing around with an almost useless Disney+ membership).</p>

  • ontariopundit

    27 February, 2020 - 5:08 pm

    <p> PS Microsoft has checked ALL of the right boxes with this release.</p><p><br></p><p>I doubt this is the case but once upon a blue moon I created a Quora answer which listed all the things that Microsoft should do with Edge… <strong>every single item </strong>on my wishlist showed up: the click-bait news feed can be completely disabled; they've gone whole hog on assuring users that their privacy is respected; they've adopted much of the Chrome interface and ditched the most frustrating aspects of the old Edge; and, they even allow you to completely disable Bing as a search engine!</p><p><br></p><p>Had Microsoft done this in 2015 Edge would have been able to mount a serious challenge against Chrome :(.</p><p><br></p><p>Sadly, this is of the "too little, too late" variety of efforts that has characterized Microsoft's responses to industry-defining competing products like the iPhone/Windows Phone and the iPod Touch/Zune.</p><p><br></p><p>They've now created the superior browser but they spent five whole years doubling-down on a poorly executed browser to what end? To save face? To try to shove Bing and Cortana down people's throats.</p><p><br></p><p>Original Edge wasn't bad. It just had some pretty major drawbacks that prevented people from getting excited about it: heavy battery use (I always found that Edge chewed up a much higher % of CPU cycles and for much longer after you stopped using it than did Chrome), FORCED integration with Bing and Cortana, click-bait news that couldn't be properly turned off and a number of other problems.</p><p><br></p><p>The biggest drawback to the new Edge is that you can't sign in to your Google account and synchronize your settings with your Google account :(.</p><p><br></p><p>There's no way I'd ever want to link up my hotmail.com account with the browser.</p><p><br></p><p>My hotmail.com account only exists so I can login to a variety of Windows 10 computers and synchronize the settings. I've not sent or received emails on my hotmail.com account in nearly 15 years and the free Dropbox (or whatever Microsoft calls its cloud drive… the annoying one they shove down your throat with Microsoft Office but that no one ever uses) of 5 GB and no photo storage is not at all appealing. I do have a work 365 account with who knows how much storage (I think a grand total of 6 MB is stored on my work drive) but I don't use any of the storage that comes with that account because we now also have an unlimited Google Drive account through work :).</p>

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