If all goes well, everyone with the latest update round got the most recent Edge on their Windows 10 system. The old version is automatically deleted. What does the new version have to offer and are there still quirks?
The history of the standard with Windows 10 The supplied browser Edge is not exactly successful. Microsoft’s own browser engine certainly wasn’t the fastest and hobbled long behind the competition. A while back, the software giant decided to throw in the towel with regard to the latter part. Edge has the Chrome engine on board in the most recent – ​​and so should be installed by now – the Chrome engine. That’s right: Google’s browser engine. The advantage is that Microsoft no longer has to worry about keeping it up-to-date and fine-tuning it. And for you as an end user it has the advantage that speed and stability can finally be expected.
Install yourself, if necessary
The new Edge has actually been circulating since last summer, but in April this year the old version was finally replaced by the new one for everyone through an update round. If for some reason that still hasn’t happened to you, you can also manually download and install the Chrome-based Edge from this page. Once the browser has been installed, chances are that it has been set (again) as the default viewer for all kinds of file formats, including PDF. If you would rather just use your old trusted PDF viewer and (or) editor, it is important to restore it quickly. To do this, click Settings in the Start menu. In the window that opens, click on apps and then Default Apps in the column on the left. Then click – right – on Default apps by file type.
In the left column you will see a long list of file types appear. Scroll down to .pdf. If you see Edge listed as the default program on the right, click on it and then choose your old trusted PDF viewer – for example Acrobat Reader. Incidentally, the change of the default viewer does not always occur after upgrading Edge, but it is a frequently heard ‘complaint’. And so easily solvable!
Google as a search engine
Edge has traditionally used its native Bing as its default search engine. If you prefer to use the familiar Google for this, click in the main Edge window on … at the top right of the screen. In the opened context menu, click on Settings. Click in the left column on Privacy, Search and Services. In the panel on the right, scroll all the way down and click Address bar and search. Choose behind Search program that in the address bar is used for Google. Or if you are very privacy-conscious (but then the question is whether it is smart to use Edge…) for DuckDuckGo. And now that you have arrived in the Settings window anyway, go through the various categories and adjust things to taste and wish. Pay some extra attention to privacy settings.
Web page as app
The new Edge has a lot of similar functionality to what we know from the Google Chrome browser and Chrome OS. Logical, because the ‘engines’ are now the same. One of the niceties that this makes possible is running a web page as an app. In recent years, more and more so-called progressive web apps (PWAs) have appeared. You can install them under Chrome OS and use them offline. This is now also possible in Edge. For example, visit https://edit.photostack.app/, which is a PWA photo editor. You will now see a new button appear in the toolbar at the top right, click on it to install the PWA.
click on to install. From now on you will find the PWA PhotoStack in the Windows Start menu; it behaves like a regular application. In short: you now have a universal source for software. A PWA is system independent, the only requirement is that a browser can handle it. A look at the future, in which the operating system has again become a significant step less important in terms of ‘hosting’ software! And if you have the taste: on this page you will find a range of PWAs, the majority of which can indeed be installed locally.
Getting information
If you are working on a paper, report or thesis, collecting information is one of the most common tasks. In addition to the diligent typing work, of course. With the first, Edge can help you along the way. Click the Collections button at the top right of the toolbar (the one with the + in it). You can now drag items like images, links, and more from an open web page in the left panel to the right panel. You can name such a collection by simply clicking on the default name at the top of the panel on the right and entering something you like. You can also add comments and send parts to other programs via the button … You can put together several collections, each with their own name. Click on < for the collection name and then on Start new collection. This way you can collect a collection of interesting things per subject. Kind of like a favorite on steroids so to speak, and distantly similar to OneNote, but now as part of your browser.
Built-in screenshot maker
Edge has a practical built-in tool to take screenshots of (parts of) a web page. Click on the button with the three dots at the top right of the screen and then in the opened menu on Web recording. You can now select a part of the page. The option is interesting Full page. This takes a screenshot of really the entire web page, in one continuous image. That can sometimes be very useful for archiving purposes, for example. Unlike printing as PDF, the entire web layout is now saved as seen in the browser. It can lead to elongated images, but you can always copy a part of it afterwards for further processing. Screenshots taken in Edge are saved in the folder by the way Downloads.
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