Apr 08 2019 07:33 AM - edited Apr 08 2019 07:48 AM
Hello Microsoft Edge Insiders!
Ever since we first announced in December that Microsoft Edge was going to adopt the Chromium open source project for our desktop browser, we’ve been excited to begin launching our Insider community. The time has finally come, and everyone can try out the new version of the browser right now!
We want to use this opportunity to start building a close relationship with all of you. Going beyond collecting comments and reviews, we’re eager to listen and engage in active conversations with you. We believe your collective voices will help us build a better Microsoft Edge, and that’s our vision for this community.
With our recent adoption of Chromium, Microsoft Edge gets a chance to grow beyond its initial home on Windows 10. As we’ve reflected on the best ways to enable a new listening system to support other versions of Windows and platforms, we’ve realized that our goals should be based on what we want as customers, not as engineers or designers.
What would such a system look like? That’s where all of you come in. Based on the feedback you’ve graciously given us over the past few years, we know it’s important to be able to quickly and easily send us problems or suggestions from directly within the browser. You also want a way to engage meaningfully and deeply with the developers, as well as a way to get immediate support when you run into a problem that you can’t fix on your own.
Other Insider programs at Microsoft have provided good models for us to follow for our new community. However, the Microsoft Edge Insider community has one important difference: you don’t need to sign up. Just downloading and using the Microsoft Edge Canary, Dev, or Beta channels is enough.
We hope that this relationship can be beneficial for both parties. For you, this isn’t just about being a member of an active group of fellow browser enthusiasts. You also get: a chance to see new features before all the other Microsoft Edge users; an in-depth understanding of how and why we built them, a direct channel of communication with the engineers responsible for them, and the chance to critique them and suggest what we should build next. We at Microsoft get valuable early feedback, your verbal and written insights about what you do and don't like about a given feature or approach, which will help us steer the product in the right direction. The ability to dig deeper and understand the why behind the what, while learning from a large and diverse worldwide audience. Finally, through our continuing conversations, we hope Insiders will invite others in their own communities to come and join in our conversation.
So, what can you expect from us? As our new features start making their way into the builds, our goal is to publish at least one new article every other week to inform and encourage active discussions on the latest developments in the Insider channels. We are devoting some of our time to reading and responding to every thread, and you can expect direct interaction from the Microsoft Edge team that promotes the deepest, most enlightening discussions.
We’re fully committed to building an open, honest and respectful community of awesome Insiders like you. We hope you’ll join our discussions or start your own today.
Welcome to our community. We can’t wait to build a great Edge community together!
-The Microsoft Edge Team-
Apr 08 2019 09:08 PM
Looking good and is snappy. Unfortunately without an option to sync to my Google Account and make it work flawlessly with my phone, it is a non-starter. @Elliot Kirk
Apr 08 2019 09:11 PM
@Darrell Shannon I think it's just the way smooth scrolling is desgined that makes it difficult for me to use it. In non smooth scrolling for example, the page stops scrolling as soon as you stop scrolling on the scroll wheel, but with smooth scrolling the scrolling continues on for about a quarter to half a second.
Apr 08 2019 09:39 PM
I'm sorry to start off somewhat negative in my first reply, but it is what it is.
The new Edge seems to be a decent browser in my opinion, even for its development status. I'm using it right now. I've also used the version of Edge that is currently packed in Windows 10 regularly, and it's okay too. But no version of Edge will ever be my default and "daily driver" browser until there is a way to totally stop all autoplaying video and audio. This is the number one reason that Firefox (sorry for using a dirty word in here) is my default. @Elliot Kirk
Apr 08 2019 11:02 PM
I pin to the start menu. Adding pin to desktop is good for some. But why take away the other two?
Apr 08 2019 11:07 PM - edited Apr 08 2019 11:08 PM
As someone who has a lot of tabs open (due to mutiple streams of work, projects, research etc.), the main annoyance of Chrome (and thus this new Edge) is the lack of ability to have multiple rows of tabs. So if you have many tabs open in Chrome/Edge, the tabs get smaller and you can't see what the tab is.
With multi-row tabs, you can always see what's on each tab. It would be great if this ability was built into Edge.
Apr 08 2019 11:21 PM
Apr 08 2019 11:28 PM
I think that the things that made Edge unique should be put back as a matter of urgency. I woild say this is the order
1. Fluent UI. The UI is basically chrome at the moment. The tabs are ugly and the start menu as a web page, as with chrome is clunky and hard to navigate. Having to do a find in page to find settings is horrible. Chrome tabs are ugly and contrary to the rest of the Windows 10 ui.
2. Pen interraction. Surface devices make a big deal about the pen and they are arguably one of the biggest appeals as MS devices. Annotation using the pen is a big draw for Edge.
3. Pin to start menu and pin to taskbar. These are features of windows 10. Without them and other similar features what we are seeing is an Edge that doesn't really fit into windows 10 as part of the eco system.
4. History. Look at the brilliant flyout that you get in old Edge. The chrome history menu is terrible in comparison. Same with downloads and favourites.
5. Tab previews and set aside. Again features unique to Edge that have gone.
I wonder if any of these things are going to ever be put back. TBH the current preview looks a bit, for want of a better word, lazy. Anyone with development experience could knock together the Egde preview given a copy of the chromium source. I say you get the people responsible for the decisions on the original egde design and ui to have input into the preview.
There is very, very little to recomment it over Chrome at the moment. In particular you will have a lag between updates chromium and them being released into the new edge. If a lot doesn't change then I can see that you will actually lose share to Chrome, rather than get more. In particular when you look at other chromium based browsers, such as Brave that seem to offer a few more features, such as inbuild security and blocking.
I've recently swapped to Outlook and Edge on all my devices, including Android but wihtout a lot of changes I can see that decision being reversed when new Edge goes live.
I think a lot of this is fairly common to those posting here and some kind of developmen schedule would go a long way to easing our fears. It doesn't have to be in depth or detailed. Something like a checklist saying yes or no to fluent ui, yes or no to pen note support, etc.
A final note.... It does seem to perform better than Chrome. But performance isn't everything. People wouldn't like driving a ferrari if the seats were made of stone and metal spikes....
Apr 08 2019 11:32 PM
"Even Google sites like gmail are faster and smoother. "
That's really because you're essentially using Chrome and those sites are optimised for it. If you do a totally clean install of Chrome with no extensions - as I suspect you are running new Edge - then I bet Chrome will be the same. With the new Edge what we're seeing is not Edge with a new engine. It's jsut a rebuild of the chromium source. Compare it with something that is the same - such as Brave - and you'll see that new Edge simply isn't unique - or even new.
Apr 08 2019 11:38 PM
The F12 development tools seem very clunky on new Edge. It is, in fact, exactly the same as the Chrome one. Are there plans to replace it with the one from the old Edge?
Apr 09 2019 03:12 AM
@Elliot Kirk Please continue to support Pinned websites to the Start Menu and Taskbar (and migrate existing edge Pins when upgrading to the new Chromium based Edge)
Apr 09 2019 04:19 AM
Apr 09 2019 04:38 AM
@Mace242 Yes it should get Fluent design elements with XAML Islands but that is completely my speculation... We don't know yet since this is an preview mostly for devs to test their sites to see if they work better but we should see some new consumer features soon.
Apr 09 2019 05:01 AM
Apr 09 2019 05:50 AM
Apr 09 2019 05:54 AM
Apr 09 2019 05:55 AM
Apr 09 2019 06:34 AM
Apr 09 2019 07:07 AM
@rsfarris wrote:
You can edit them and save them blank, without a title, and it will at least remove the label and leave the icon. It's a decent temporary solution.
Well, that would be ok for normal website icons like FaceBook, Twitter etc... but for folders that I have on the favorites bar, that contain several links in each to websites I need to get to, it does no good to have a blank name. In MS Edge when you only show the icon and hover over the icon, the name pops up telling what that folder is for... So leaving it blank would not help..
Thanks for your input though..
Dennis5mile
Apr 09 2019 08:01 AM
@Elliot Kirk Help, Cant install canary or development build getting error when installing. Install error 0xffff7001. Already tried disk cleanup, restart, and also Im on windows 10 1809 64x and enabled developer features on the settings but still nothing.
Apr 09 2019 08:05 AM