Microsoft Edge 87 is Now Available

The new version of Microsoft Edge enables the web browser’s shopping features by default and adds numerous other new features.

“Microsoft Edge is the best browser for shopping this holiday,” Microsoft corporate vice president Liat Ben-Zur writes in the announcement post. “In fact, Microsoft Edge is the only browser with built-in tools to help you save time and money while shopping online with new features like auto-fill coupons and more proactive price comparisons.”

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Here’s what’s new.

Shopping in Microsoft Edge. Now enabled by default on both desktop and mobile, the shopping tools in Microsoft Edge will alert you when there are coupons available for a shopping website you’re visiting, and it will check prices at competing retailers and tell you if there are lower prices available. (To disable this feature on desktop, open Edge settings and navigate to Privacy, search, and services. Then, locate the option titled “Save time and money with Shopping Microsoft Edge” under Services.)

New Tab page enhancements. The New Tab page has been updated with voice search capabilities: Just click the microphone icon in the search box and start speaking. The New Tab page also now supports a new Deals tile that will provide you with a “customized set of up-to-the-minute retailer discounts.” This one isn’t enabled by default, so if you’re interested, open the New Tab page, click the “+” tile in Top Sites and then select Deals.

New Tab page enhancements for enterprise users. For those using a company-managed PC, the New Tab page can now toggle between your work (“Office”) and personal (“My Feed”) information.

Updated web capture. Microsoft Edge’s screenshotting capability, called web capture, has been updated to support digital ink and annotations. And later this month, it’s getting another long asked-for feature, the ability to capture an entire webpage (including the parts you can’t currently see outside of the browser view) with a single click. You can access web capture from the Setting and more menu or by typing CTRL + SHIFT + S.

PDF improvements. And speaking of features users missed from legacy Edge, Microsoft Edge’s PDF capabilities have been updated to support text notes and annotations.

URL pasting improvements. Now, when you copy a webpage URL in the Edge address bar and then paste it into an email or elsewhere on a webpage, it will be automatically shortened for you by default. If you prefer the full URL, you can instead paste as plain text (CTRL + SHIFT + V), and you can of course change that to be the default if you choose. (Just right-click and choose Paste as > Change default.)

Book mode on Surface Duo. Microsoft Edge now supports a Book mode that is optimized for that device’s dual-screens in which one article is sized for reading across both screens like the pages of a book.

The Microsoft Docs website notes other improvements in this release, including automatic redirection for incompatible sites from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, Kiosk mode privacy features enabled by default, ClickOnce deployment enabled by default for enterprises, and some printing improvements.

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Conversation 29 comments

  • sherlockholmes

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2020 - 9:23 am

    <p>And it looks like Microsoft fixed two of my personal problems with Edge. Sadly I have to say "Goodbye Firefox". </p>

    • fishnet37222

      Premium Member
      20 November, 2020 - 9:32 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594471">In reply to SherlockHolmes:</a></em></blockquote><p>My biggest problem with Edge is that it's based on Chromium and not Gecko. Until that changes, I will be sticking with Firefox.</p>

      • phil_adcock

        20 November, 2020 - 11:11 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#594473">In reply to fishnet37222:</a></em></blockquote><p>Firefox? That's still kicking. I thought it was as dead as Thunderbird lol.</p>

      • behindmyscreen

        23 November, 2020 - 11:30 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#594473">In reply to fishnet37222:</a></em></blockquote><p>what is your beef with Chromium? Just being idealistic about avoiding monoculture? </p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          24 November, 2020 - 8:38 am

          I assume it’s about all the built-in Google tracking for advertisers.

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2020 - 9:33 am

    <p>Not so sure about auto opt-in for some of these things. </p><p><br></p><p>Shortened urls will confuse many people. Having to opt-out of the shopping thing is the wrong move. The other stuff is very welcome though! </p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      20 November, 2020 - 9:47 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594475">In reply to IanYates82:</a></em></blockquote><p>Although the shopping doesn't seem to do anything.</p>

      • rmlounsbury

        Premium Member
        20 November, 2020 - 11:34 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#594480">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>It popped up when I was on the Samsung site with a little tag icon in the URL bar noting that the site had 3 coupons. When you click the tag it surfaces the coupon codes available. </p><p><br></p><p>Seems handy by way of surfacing codes you might not know about. Although, in the case of Samsung the discounts are automatically applied anyways. </p>

        • wright_is

          Premium Member
          21 November, 2020 - 1:56 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#594509">In reply to rmlounsbury:</a></em></blockquote><p>Thanks, I tried again at Samsung, that showed coupons, but none of the shopping sites I use seem to show any coupons.</p>

    • behindmyscreen

      23 November, 2020 - 11:28 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594475">In reply to IanYates82:</a></em></blockquote><p>I welcome the pretty URLs (not really shortened)</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2020 - 9:37 am

    <p>Just updated. No microphone on the new tab page and not seeing a way to change between office and private modes.</p><p>No URL shortening with copy-paste into Outlook, Word or VS Code.</p><p>I'm not seeing any of the shopping features either – I checked in the settings, it is activated, but visiting Amazon is showing no additional information and I can't see any buttons or anything to call up the information, how is it supposed to work?</p><p><br></p>

    • sherlockholmes

      Premium Member
      20 November, 2020 - 10:06 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594478">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>When it doesent work for you, its not a bug. Its a feature 😛 Btw. I dont see it either. </p>

      • wright_is

        Premium Member
        21 November, 2020 - 1:55 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#594483">In reply to SherlockHolmes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Interesting, going to a shopping site shows no coupons, going to Samsung does show coupons… Interesting.</p>

  • richardbottiglieri

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2020 - 9:53 am

    <p>Also, tab and history syncing are available in the DEV channel (version 88). So, we're not far away from this feature, hopefully. Nice!</p>

  • chrisg101

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2020 - 12:55 pm

    <p>No vertical tabs, yet?</p>

  • compuser

    20 November, 2020 - 1:08 pm

    <p>That book mode on the Surface Duo would be amazing. Too bad it's priced so incredibly far out of the reach of the average person. Maybe in a few years used Duos will be affordable. (One can only dream.)</p>

  • mattemt294

    20 November, 2020 - 1:48 pm

    <p>It's interesting that the shopping feature is on automatically. I think this has to do with honey and it seems to clash with the privacy aspects of edge considering for it to work they track everything </p>

    • jgraebner

      Premium Member
      22 November, 2020 - 8:30 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594534">In reply to mattemt294:</a></em></blockquote><p>They should probably also do a better job at communicating these changes. I hadn't heard of the shopping feature until it popped up for me earlier this week and at first I thought I had accidentally installed an extension somehow.</p><p><br></p><p>Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain too much as it showed a coupon code that ended up saving me $10… :)</p>

  • smsteven

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2020 - 3:49 pm

    <p>About 100% of the improvements to my Windows experience are coming from the Edge team </p>

  • dftf

    20 November, 2020 - 6:48 pm

    <p>I'm rather liking the new Edge (I'm even using it on my Windows 7 PC, though will only use Firefox after July 2021, when updates cease).</p><p><br></p><p>Compared to Google Chrome I like having the ability to clear cache items when closing the browser, but that I can also tell it to always keep specific cookies. I also prefer the better UI-spacing between items (e.g. between bookmark entries) and that unlike the new Chrome, it doesn't force the jigsaw icon in the UI. (My Windows 10 device is running the latest 20H2 release, so I'll get the RAM savings there, too).</p><p><br></p><p>However I really dislike how there are no settings to choose what you want loaded on a new tab: you just get what Microsoft have set. I'd prefer to set a custom page, or just a blank page. And I look-forward to the icon-refresh, as many of the current UI icons look badly anti-aliased…</p>

  • buzzmodo

    20 November, 2020 - 7:17 pm

    <p>Why can't you share a link to Outlook? And why no keyboard equivalents for sharing? </p>

  • garrett

    20 November, 2020 - 8:49 pm

    <p>I wish they would add a create shortcut feature. I can drag the URL to the desktop but that gives me the generic Edge favicon. So I fire up Internet Explorer and paste the URL to get the link with proper favicon. I save a lot of links, there are currently 3,165 of them in my Reference folder.</p>

    • Stokkolm

      20 November, 2020 - 9:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594589">In reply to Garrett:</a></em></blockquote><p>Just out of curiosity, why don't you use Bookmarks? </p>

    • prettyconfusd

      21 November, 2020 - 8:03 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594589">In reply to Garrett:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>You can always add it "as an app" – click the ellipsis, then apps, and choose "add site as an app" then it'll show up with the right icon and open in its own window. There's also the collections feature which is great specifically for research and referencing – and easily exportable as and when needed.</p>

    • behindmyscreen

      23 November, 2020 - 11:24 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#594589">In reply to Garrett:</a></em></blockquote><p>holy crap man….Just use Edge's bookmarks or Collections.</p>

  • dfunk

    21 November, 2020 - 1:59 pm

    <p>I must be the only user that actually uses the pen to markup pdf's because Edge can't differentiate between my finger and the pen (and on a Surface Pro, too). WorkFromHome means all digital communication now. Simple markups on CAD drawings and documents by hand is so much quicker than tools like Blue Beam. I thought we were getting the same functionality that we had with legacy Edge (LEdge). But MS seems to be all about consumers rather than productivity…</p>

  • mikefarinha

    24 November, 2020 - 1:26 pm

    <p>For what it's worth I've saved $50 each on new Galaxy S20's for my wife and I because of the MS Edge notification of a coupon for Samsung's site. That's an extra $100 left in my pocket!</p><p><br></p><p>I will add that Microsoft's Shopping Assistant browser plug-in is also awesome for tracking prices across the web.</p>

  • Palosrob .MaKaElectric Rebuttal Channel

    25 November, 2020 - 9:26 am

    <p>Updated Edge that came with Build 20262 drastically reduces the Favorites window, it used to behave much like on Chrome, extending almost the entire length of my monitor's right side when opened. Now it's about 1/4 the size. The box also "pulsates" 2 or 3 times before settling down. Weird.</p>

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