Forum Discussion
Beta Channel is live, collections is in Canary, all the details right here.
We have some news to announce. We have been working on getting our Beta channel builds ready to unveil, while steaming full ahead getting new features into Canary. We hope that you will download and try out our Beta channel, which installs side by side with our other preview channels (Canary and Dev), as well as the current version of Microsoft Edge. Beta is the most stable preview version of Microsoft Edge, and will the last stop before we go live. Joe Belfiore has written a full blog post on what this milestone means to us, and what you can expect.
In addition to our big announcement of the Beta channel, we are happy to tell you that we are beginning to test our Collections feature in the latest Canary channel builds. We announced the Collections feature in our Microsoft Build 2019 conference keynote in May, and have been working on getting it great since then. To test out this feature, you must first enable it using the #edge-collections flag on the edge://flags page. You are then free to add, edit. delete and even export collections to your heart's content. As always, please let us know how you think we are doing. We love hearing from you, and your feedback, whether you love it or hate it, will help us shape this into the best browser possible. Thank you! - Elliot
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66 Replies
- gotohowardCopper Contributor
Elliot Kirk This is an unrelated comment to Beta Channel and Collections in Canary. I have both of those browsers in different ways. Canary is only Chrome's. I downloaded Beta Channel just to see what the stable version was like since I had the Dev version of Chrome Edge already with no problems I've noticed.
I am a long time user of browsers since their inception. It is my observation in many ways we are still using a very similar browser from almost the start. Of course, their are cosmetic changes, better security, and many extensions available now. I also know it is difficult to have one homogeneous effective vehicle for everyone although Edge is trying very hard. Opera some time back issued an experimental browser that apparently is discontinued for the time being that I thought was the future for browsers. My feeling is everyone is still using a rectangle box to click on all over to do the simplest tasks such as basic browsing. On a desktop (especially as the monitors people use get larger) has everyone pointing to one bottom corner, then going to the opposing upper corner to do yet another command. Nothing is multi-dimensional or opaque. In many cases the placement of items don't make logical sense in repetitive use. Yet, as far as I can tell, development is mostly about lining up partnerships which in Edge's case makes a lot of sense, but still I don't see anything truly experimental coming out of these bleeding edge channels. We are mostly typing on keypads developed in the 19th century. So, I know this has been long, is there anything on the forefront of changing the way we browse?
- Drew1903Silver Contributor
gotohoward
Hi Howard & welcome,
This is not directed exclusively at you, but, to Folks in general. And, I am not being picky, playing word games or talking about semantics. I am referring to calling the Beta Channel "the stable version". Correctly, it is the MOST stable. The idea is it will have the fewest flaws, surprises or faults... that issues have been found & fixed in Canary & Dev before they hit Beta. And, it's the MOST stable in so much that it does not experience changes or additions as frequently as the other 2. But, I just don't want anyone confusing stable with finished or non-beta. The Beta Channel, as it's name says, IS a beta; it's theoretically the best beta and the MOST stable... but, it is (still) not the finished product that will ultimately released in it's FULLY stable, finished, non-beta form.
Cheers,
Drew- TomazONBrass Contributor
Drew1903 Hello Drew !! How are u friend? So ... I understand your point and u r right ... The Beta still is called beta , it may have some issues another time or other when new things coming to the Dev comes, I am enjoying it a lot, and I hope people also do ... I have until something to say :
The Beta Version is great with extensions from chrome store, I am testing uBLOCK Origins, Ghostery, Dark Reader and Bitwarden from Chrome store and they are working perfectly. (If I am not totally wrong I guess only Dark Reader is not on the Microsoft Edge Insider Addons) ...
The Dev Version is with an issue in Chrome extensions, so the only way to use this extensions is with Microsoft Edge Insider Addons, I believe this is going to be fixed soon ... Dark Reader is not there and in the night I have to go back to the Beta to work and surf ...Canary I still not installed but I will after I reboot, it is already downloaded but I am very busy with 14 tabs in Beta Edge opened with 1.9 K Mb RAM working just fine and very quick almost instantly in my notebook ...Canary I do not know if it is working fine the Chromium Extensions but Beta needs always be fixing because in Edge Insider Addons has just a few extensions ...I hope everyone is enjoying and testing the 3 builds and bringing here the bugs to help the Devs make edge quicker :))See u all around 🙂
- TomazONBrass Contributor
Elliot Kirk Hello man, I very happy to listen about this ... I've already installed the Beta version and Beta is already my default browser 🙂 . I will keep surfing with the Dev version everyday to help testing it. With the Beta version I am inviting many of my friends to install it too ... Congratulations, and thanks to give us the Beta version to us ... With it I do not need Old Edge anymore 🙂 Beta Default to guarantee and Dev to surf and give feedback 😉
- Aussie157Copper ContributorI am a little disappointed with the Microsoft Edge Beta. When downloading files it does not integrate with my Internet Download Manager. If I am downloading a large file I cannot close the browser until it is finished which maybe a couple of hours. The Favourites folder is now on the Favourites Bar (which I don't like). I would prefer the original favourites menu to be in the top right corner as it was previously. The Favourites Bar is loaded with sites I do not use and in the past I could hide it. Oh, also the favourites menu looks too much like Fire Fox or Google Chrome.
- AnthonyIron Contributor
Yep. It's why it's beta. It's the flow of things. Canary, Dev, Beta, and eventually into Stable. You might see things in Canary that never appear in Dev and things fixed in Dev that function perfect in Beta and Beta to test out the things that were tested out and fixed in Canary to Dev and so on and so on. Beta isn't the stable version and feedback will help fix or give input on features for Beta that can carry over (or not) into Stable. Maybe that input is taken for face value and you'll see something new or changed in Canary to test out and eventually flow back up to Beta.
- RobWuijsterIron Contributor
Aussie157
Well.... It's still beta, so report it and get it fixed 😉
- Mace242Iron ContributorI just downloaded this and it's a shame. Beta is, as far as I'm concerned, the proposed feature complete release. It still looks almost exactly like Chrome. Looks out of place in Windows 10 and fits better with Macs. Even Edge on Android looks more like it fits in with Windows 10. Vivaldi have done a better job of making a chromium based browser fit within Windows than Microsoft have. What a shame.
- Elliot KirkSilver Contributor
Hi Mace242,
"Beta is, as far as I'm concerned, the proposed feature complete release."
Beta is just another step in the cycle, and represents our most stable build of the last several weeks, rather than our most feature complete. You can immediately see differences between Beta and Canary / Developer when looking at the Sync settings supported. We plan to update our Beta branch with major updates about every 6 weeks, and with important fixes as needed. At the end of that period, the Beta will become the new Stable build (once we have set up the Stable channel) and the latest Developer build will be promoted to Beta. If you are interested in seeing the latest set of features (and are willing to put up with some bugs) Canary get our nightly build. We are not complete by any stretch of the imagination at this point, but we are dedicated to building in the open, and getting feedback from you, our Insiders, as soon as possible. Thanks - Elliot
- Peter_DinhBrass Contributor
Elliot Kirk Thanks for the info.
Today, I eagerly downloaded the Beta version, installed and tried it.
However, I immediately uninstalled it after testing it with Pulse Secure Application Launcher + Citrix, it kept asking me to launch Pulse Secure Application Launcher every time instead of doing it automatically like IE, and the Dev, the Canary versions.
This is one of the features that I disliked intensely, and this is precisely the reason why I kept using IE instead of the official Microsoft Edge.
I suggest that Edge must remember the user choice at the 1st time, and subsequently it just does it automatically.
- Elliot KirkSilver Contributor
Hi Peter_Dinh, thank you for your comment: "I suggest that Edge must remember the user choice at the 1st time, and subsequently it just does it automatically." Downloads are really tricky because what the "right" thing to do is depends greatly on the type of thing downloading. We have decided to default to Save because we had previously defaulted to open and heard many complaints where people have "lost" content if they didn't have the right program to open it, or if there was some other issue preventing it from opening properly. This is an especially big issue in places where their internet bandwidth is metered and they pay per kb downloaded. I will let the developers that own this feature know of your feedback. Thanks - Elliot
- Peter_DinhBrass Contributor
Elliot Kirk, many thanks for the response. Now I see the reason why the beta version does it. Ideally, I still think the classic IE behavior is correct though.