Microsoft Confirms It Will Adopt Chromium for Microsoft Edge

Microsoft is announcing big changes for the default browser in Windows 10 today. Redmond is confirming a report from earlier this week that it is replacing the EdgeHTML browser engine with Chromium on Microsoft Edge.

Chromium is the open source browser that powers Google Chrome, as well as some other smaller browsers. The development of Chromium is mostly led by Google engineers, as well as other open source contributors.

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Over the next year, Microsoft plans to move Edge to a “Chromium-compatible” platform on Windows 10. The company plans to be a major contributor to the Chromium project, stating its engineers have already started work on better ARM support. It also plans to contribute to Chromium to improve Chromium-based browsers, including Edge, to work better on Windows 10 hardware. Part of that includes introducing improved touch support and web accessibility.

The move to Chromium will allow Microsoft to deliver frequent updates to Edge on Windows 10, even on older versions of the OS, which is something that hasn’t been possible in the past. The company says this will enable it to bring Edge to other versions of Windows, like 7 and 8.1, and other platforms like macOS in the near-future.

Redmond says the changes to Microsoft Edge will all be “under the hood” and that users shouldn’t see a major change in the browser itself. The company hopes the move to Chromium will help make the web much more of a consistent experience for users and web developers. As developers will no longer have to test their websites and web apps separately for EdgeHTML, the web will also become less fragmented, allowing for easier testing and more of a consistent experience for everyone.

Microsoft hopes to release an early preview build of the new Microsoft Edge sometime in early 2019. Still, the details for all this is pretty scarce at this moment, and that’s likely because Microsoft was effectively forced to reveal its plans to the public after the big leak from earlier this week.

The move to Chromium is certainly going to be a huge one for Edge as a browser. As EdgeHTML powers the web platform in UWP apps as well, the shift could be quite complicated. But if you, like me, have hated the stability of Edge in the past, this could be a welcome change. Or not. It all depends on how Microsoft implements Chromium and how swiftly everything happens.

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Conversation 41 comments

  • Davor Radman

    06 December, 2018 - 12:07 pm

    <p>If I can't login and sync to my google account, not much use for me.</p>

    • lordbaal1

      06 December, 2018 - 1:42 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378817">In reply to Markiz von Schnitzel:</a></em></blockquote><p>It will not sync to google. You have to import bookmarks, and input passwords manually.</p><p>What you're asking have nothing to do with the rendering engine.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      07 December, 2018 - 3:15 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378817">In reply to Markiz von Schnitzel:</a></em></blockquote><p>That's the whole point for many people, Google can't track you (as easily) when you are using a different browser – although Microsoft can, so Firefox would still be a better alternative, if you are that worried.</p>

  • chiwax

    06 December, 2018 - 12:13 pm

    <p>Glad to see that they wanna improve touch on all browsers. Because Google stuff on Windows 10 is surprisingly bad when it comes to touch. YouTube is by far the worst for me.</p>

    • T182

      06 December, 2018 - 12:24 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378831">In reply to ChiWax:</a></em></blockquote><p>Agreed. I hate trying to use Chrome on my Surface Pro in tablet mode. Wonder if they'll do anything for inking, not that I use it that often.</p><p><br></p><p>This would make the reports of a 'Windows Lite' OS make sense. This could be a big win in the education market for MS. I'm excited to see where this goes. Granted, there's a lot of room to be disappointed…</p><p><br></p>

  • fishnet37222

    Premium Member
    06 December, 2018 - 12:15 pm

    <p>I would have preferred they go with Gecko.</p>

  • gardner

    Premium Member
    06 December, 2018 - 12:34 pm

    <p>I haven't seen others speak of this, but wont this reduce the appeal of "Chrome the browser" ? </p><p><br></p><p>Any website chrome-compatible will be Edge-compatible, right?</p><p><br></p><p>So what would the appeal be for normals to download and install Chrome if their desktops already have a compatible browser?</p><p><br></p><p>(and yes I know, "extensions", but I don't think many people select their browser based on which extensions it supports.</p>

    • dcdevito

      06 December, 2018 - 12:35 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378852">In reply to gardner:</a></em></blockquote><p>Absolutely it should definitely reduce the attractiveness of Chrome now. </p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      07 December, 2018 - 2:48 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378852">In reply to gardner:</a></em></blockquote><p>But how would they let Google steal their data, erm, I mean collect their personal data to improve the ad experience?</p>

  • disco_larry

    06 December, 2018 - 12:45 pm

    <p>Does this mean it will support Chrome extensions? The plugin ecosystem for Edge sucks.</p><p><br></p>

    • Rafael Rivera

      Premium Member
      06 December, 2018 - 1:02 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378872">In reply to disco_larry:</a></em></blockquote><p>Shooting for 100% compatible stuff. (Edge was very compatible with Chrome extensions too.) No word on being able to install them from Chrome store though.</p>

    • markbyrn

      Premium Member
      06 December, 2018 - 1:14 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378872">In reply to disco_larry:</a></em></blockquote><p>probably and they can follow how Opera did it with an "install Chrome extensions" add-on.</p>

    • truerock2

      06 December, 2018 - 3:20 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378872">In reply to disco_larry:</a></em></blockquote><p>Chromium is not Chrome</p>

  • zicoz

    06 December, 2018 - 12:49 pm

    <p>How is this going to help them deliver frequent updates to Edge on Windows 10? How are they removing the things that are preventing this today? (The need to keep compatibility between Edge and UWP)</p>

    • Rafael Rivera

      Premium Member
      06 December, 2018 - 1:01 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378879">In reply to zicoz:</a></em></blockquote><p>Edge is going away. The web controls will remain and get serviced but won't receive any new major features. A new control will follow.</p>

      • Greg Green

        07 December, 2018 - 9:38 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378891">In reply to WithinRafael:</a></em></blockquote><p>But isn’t edge deeply embedded in the OS like IE? Will they root it out? And will chromium based edge be rerooted in?</p>

  • Winner

    06 December, 2018 - 12:50 pm

    <p>Frequent updates to a Microsoft browser? Wow, who would have thought? I guess we will see if it actually happens.</p>

  • christian.hvid

    06 December, 2018 - 1:19 pm

    <p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The company says this will enable it to bring Edge to other versions of Windows, like 7 and 8.1"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Paul, we debated briefly over this possibility two days ago. Turns out I won. That's gotta be worth one of those awesome Alpha-male badges on my avatar, right? </p>

  • waethorn

    06 December, 2018 - 1:21 pm

    <p>….part of the FANG crowd, indeed! So much so, they're willing to just reuse code to get there.</p>

  • alexoughton

    Premium Member
    06 December, 2018 - 1:28 pm

    <p>Does this mean that Chrome itself will then be allowed in the store?</p><p><br></p><p>If the rule is that apps in the store need to use the Edge engine… and that's changing to Chromium… wouldn't that mean that Chrome would be allowed by virtue of also being Chromium under the hood?</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      07 December, 2018 - 2:46 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378915">In reply to alexoughton:</a></em></blockquote><p>It would have to use the installed Microsoft Blink engine, not its own, so it would need some re-working and would just be a stripped down shell. But could theoretically work, within the guidelines.</p><p>But until the guidelines change, you wouldn't get "full" Chrome, but Chrome á la iOS.</p>

  • warren

    06 December, 2018 - 2:20 pm

    <p>I wonder what this means for the next versions of Windows Server and Windows 10 LTSC. Yeah I know it's still three years away, but would they reconsider their stance on shipping a modern web browser? Would they ship a version of Chromium then spend the next ten years backporting security patches?</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • skane2600

    06 December, 2018 - 2:28 pm

    <p>Kind of crazy of MS to develop a new version of Edge so it can work on Windows 7 when they say they are going to stop supporting it in 2 years. If they're serious they should extend the deadline.</p><p><br></p><p>And what are the implications for UWP? Unless they intend to have significantly different versions for different versions of Windows, it seems they'll have to make the new Edge a Win32 program.</p>

  • reason42

    06 December, 2018 - 4:22 pm

    <p class="ql-indent-1"><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"But if you, like me, have hated the stability of Edge in the past, this could be a welcome change".</em></p><p><br></p><p>Hated the stability?</p>

    • JimP

      06 December, 2018 - 4:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#379097">In reply to reason42:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Lack of stability.</p>

  • BudTugglie

    06 December, 2018 - 6:08 pm

    <p>Why is Microsoft wasting money on another browser? What do they have to gain? There are enough browsers already in popular use. Once again, Microsoft comes late to a game that is already over.</p>

    • Alastair Cooper

      07 December, 2018 - 12:04 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#379187">In reply to BudTugglie:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Even if people don't use their browser, it's a dependency for other technologies that render web content, like UWP apps as stated above. There are also a lot of Win32 applications that use Windows' bundled browser components.</p><p><br></p><p>It's also one of the few outlets they have control over for integrating their online services (just as with Google and Chrome) so that's likely to be a big factor too.</p><p><br></p><p>Also remember 15 years ago IE was dominant, Firefox was extremely capable but an also-ran on market share and Chrome didn't even exist. The game seemed to be over then but things change.</p>

      • skane2600

        07 December, 2018 - 12:51 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#379478">In reply to Alastair_Cooper:</a></em></blockquote><p>But aren't those Windows' bundled browser components provided by IE? Not likely that the new Edge will have anything to do with those. </p>

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