Will Microsoft Edge be UWP on Windows 10?

Brass Contributor

Win32 apps never have the same high quality of font-rendering, pretty smooth animations, beautiful fluent-design and perfect touchpad/screen support likes UWP apps.

I think Microsoft Edge should make a UWP for Windows 10 users to maximize user experience. On other Windows systems (such as Windows 7 and etc.), a Win32 app is okay enough.

 

In my opinion, a UWP version of Edge with Chromium will be pretty much better than Chrome definiately. 

11 Replies

While I would love a UWP version of Chromium Edge as well, I would imagine that we won't see one since UWP doesn't run on Windows Server or Windows Terminal Services. Microsoft and corporate customers need a browser for those versions. Their only options currently are IE 11, Chrome and Firefox.

 

However, along similar lines, I'm wondering if/when Chromium Edge will be available through the Microsoft Store since this is the only way to get it to run on devices running Windows 10 in S Mode such as Surface Laptop and Surface Go.  @hez2010 

@CaprioliJOn Windows Server we already have win32 version of Chromium Edge. The UWP version of Chromium Edge is for Windows 10 with UWP support, and it provides better experience :)

I support your opinion. I think that if the new Microsoft Edge is excellent enough, it can replace IE11 before long. UWP and traditional win32 versions of Edge can coexist like those of IE on Windows 8, if both of them can provide good user experience.
Third-party browsers based on Chromium made by Chinese companies usually run slowly even on some entry-level laptops because they have too many unnecessary functions and some of them have annoying ads. In the meantime, Chrome can't sync in China for some reasons, and it still can't scroll smoothly on my devices. UWP version of Edge is important for low-end devices like Surface Go and other tablets.

@CaprioliJ  Definitely, IE app on win 8. win 8.1 was the best touch screen / tablet as win 8/8.1 metro UI was best for touch /tablet . win 10 is good for desktop but far worse than win8/8.1 for touch 

@hez2010 i think if they do it (it possible to convert win32 app to UWP), it will be before the stable one, but i doubt they do it (since they have visual studio code and other software not in UWP.

 

I would like to have fluent in edge, but when i have asked, like always, they didn't responded...

@hez2010 my experience with UWP has been very disastrous. Even simple apps, like the new calculator app, take ages to load. The RAM usage and hard drive usage prevents me of using many apps at the same time (say, Visual Studio and Outlook). And I'm using a developer machine with Corei7 and 12GB RAM! Personally I'm glad UWP is being slowly and quietly phased out by Microsoft. You can get the same UI experience with WPF apps though, if you really like FluentUI (which I personally don't). And WPF uses Win32 calls on the background (would one consider DirectX part of Win32, seeing how it's COM?). So, personally, I'm glad Edge won't be using UWP. 

UWP did have these problems you mentioned before Windows 10 1709, however, after 1709 all performance related issues were gone.
Now I'm using Windows 10 1903, and I cannot even see the initialization process in most UWP such as Edge, calculator, settings and etc.
Although UWP used to have very bad experience, its experience now has been improved a lot and better than WPF, and the design of UWP is also more modern than WPF.

@hez2010 I'm afraid not, but they can use XAML islands. Chromium needs to be ported to UWP before it can be a UWP app. It just feels cheap without UWP and Fluent Design. They already have to fragment in order to support macOS, iOS, and Android, and eventually Linux, which Android is based on.

I totally agree with you @hez2010 

UWP experience got improved a lot. I'm on Windows 10 version 1909 and I haven't faced a problem with any UWP app since the update. 

@TS12345  Update on this?

 

Also is edge not being UWP the reason why it is not available in the win app store?

@cheeseleader It already comes via Windows Update.