Dev channel update to 81.0.381.0 is live

[josh_bodner]

Welcome to the new year!  Today we’re releasing build 81.0.381.0 to the Dev Channel, which as you can see is the first new build from major version 81.  We haven’t been completely asleep during the holidays though; we’ve been slowing turning favorites sync back on for most Canary and Dev users, with the last of them coming back online a couple of days ago.  As sync is re-enabled, some machines may experience duplication-like behavior as the machines get back into a clean state, but that behavior shouldn’t persist, and any changes you make to your favorites should now sync properly (but please let us know if that’s not the case!) 

We also have a couple of informational updates.  First, we’ve proposed our security baseline configuration for when organizations install the Stable channel of Edge:  https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2019/12/18/security-baseline-draft-edge-79/.  There’s an accompanying discussion over on the Security Baselines forum.  Second, we started a discussion around the value proposition of Reading List and how users would like to see us evolve it moving forward:  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/reading-list-discussion/m-p/1070553.  As for the most noteworthy product changes: 

Added features:

• Added a feature to suggest URLs to visit that are similar to typed URLs that result in a failed navigation due to the fact that no webpage at the typed URL exists.
• Added a keyboard shortcut for starting Read Aloud (ctrl + shift + U).
• Added the ability to paste multiple items into a Collection at the same time.
• Added a dialog to tell users when a new data type is available to sync.
• Added support for Guided Switch to suggest going back to a personal profile when visiting links to certain non-work or school resources in a work or school profile.
• Added support for the Chromium management policy to disable web payment APIs in webpages.
• Added a management policy for disabling Microsoft Search for Business.

Improved reliability:

• Fixed a crash when syncing favorites.
• Fixed an issue where favorites that are synced between multiple machines sometimes get deleted from one machine when they’re edited on another.
• Fixed a crash when syncing Collections.
• Fixed a crash when sync is enabled.
• Fixed a crash when syncing with Edge mobile.
• Fixed a crash when clearing browsing data.
• Fixed an issue where Collections don’t sync properly.
• Fixed a crash when importing certain data from other browsers.
• Fixed an issue where Edge fails to install due to a crash in the installer.
• Fixed an issue where uninstalling Edge and re-installing the same channel with a lower version number causes Edge to no longer launch.
• Fixed an issue where enabling Tracking Prevention prevents some pages from ever loading, regardless of the level Tracking Prevention is set at.
• Fixed an issue where certain videos don’t load when Tracking Prevention is enabled.
• Fixed an issue where Tracking Prevention prevented users from logging into certain websites.
• Fixed an issue where navigation in new tabs sometimes fails, either showing an error that the connection is closed or crashing the tab, but subsequent navigations are sometimes okay. 
• Fixed an issue where typing in the address bar sometimes causes a crash.
• Fixed an issue where Edge is no longer able to launch after uninstalling and reinstalling it.
• Fixed a crash for users who have certain anti-virus programs installed.
• Fixed an issue where Amazon Music fails to play.
• Fixed an issue where sharing a local file (for example, a PDF that’s been downloaded onto the machine) fails.
• Fixed a crash during shutdown.
• Fixed an issue where the policy to enable/disable printing headers and footers doesn’t work.
• Improved the reliability of installation.

Changed behavior:

• Fixed an issue where downloading files in IE mode tabs sometimes prevents the browser from being closed even after the downloads are completed.
• Fixed an issue where the user can’t remove pages from the list of pages to open when the browser first starts.
• Fixed an issue where removing a search provider in Settings sometimes results in the inability to add that same search provider again.
• Fixed an issue where the second page of the print preview dialog doesn’t render properly.
• Fixed an issue where unselecting categories to be synced during the First Run Experience sometimes results in those data types still being synced.
• Fixed an issue where the Office New Tab Page is broken.
• Fixed an issue where creating a new Collection sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where some images can’t be dragged and dropped into a Collection.
• Fixed an issue where using Collections sometimes causes error reporting dialogs to appear.
• Fixed an issue where certain suggested sites in the Pinning Wizard don’t get pinned to the taskbar.
• Fixed an issue where the toggle to sync open tabs isn’t functional.
• Fixed an issue where login details appear as autocomplete candidates for text fields that aren’t used for logging in.
• Fixed an issue where signing into the browser sometimes fails to properly set the profile picture.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where websites installed as apps don’t open and instead show an error if Edge isn’t already running.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where the update page spins forever or eventually shows an error after a successful update.
• Improved how much content is blocked by SmartScreen’s dangerous content blocker.
• Fixed an issue where highlighting text in the address bar then clicking on webpages sometimes causes black-on-dark text when the browser is in Dark Theme.
• Fixed some graphical flickering when switching between IE mode tabs and non-IE mode tabs.
• Fixed a white flash when entering Reading View.
• Improved the PDF reader’s background area color in Dark Theme.
• Fixed an issue where Application Guard windows sometimes don’t use the proper theme.
• Improved performance when opening Application Guard windows for the first time.
• Changed the name of the window that appears when you hover over a running instance of Edge on the Task Bar to only be the name of the active tab in that window instead of also containing the name of the profile and browser.
• Changed the behavior of “deprecated” management policies to still apply properly, which differs from Chrome’s definition of “not supported” policies. Both “not supported” in Chrome and “obsolete” in Edge are policies which are no longer supported and just show an error instead of being applied. 

Known issues:

• After an initial fix for it recently, some users are still experiencing Edge windows becoming all black. UI popups like menus are not affected and opening the Browser Task Manager (keyboard shortcut is shift + esc) and killing the GPU process fixes it. 
• Some users are still not seeing Collections being enabled by default on Canary and Dev. For users who want to try Collections, enabling the flag at edge://flags/#edge-collections should still work to turn on the feature. 
• There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it.  In another, restarting the browser fixes it. 
• At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents.

We’re looking forward to the release of the Stable channel soon, and thank you for all the help you’ve given us in getting to that point! 

[#2]

More bothering than that for me is the fact that Bing is so dumb when it comes to safe search.
they categorize "Girls" (just the word) as adult! how ridiculous does that sound!?

Bing thinks all girls are pronstars!

Google on the other hand can correctly tell the difference when it comes to explicit and non explicit search result filtering.

[#3]

@viniciusbezerra 

Ok.  Somehow I've not seen or notice any of that on Bing search pages, at all.  Hence, it being one big reason (of many) why I, personally, use & prefer Bing.  I wish Bing.com home page was the NTP, rather than just only using basic Bing search bar; would, then, also, have Bing Visual Search which, is fantastic! 

When we Bing Insiders meet monthly we often remark on the lack of ads at the top of search pages before actual results, that people don't like or want, with Bing compared to other search engine pages.  And how that is another thing making Bing attractive & appealing.

There are several things about Bing that make me, at least, quite happy that it is the 'primary' (for lack of a better word) search engine in Edge.

Here's an example; "Look, Ma, no ads".


Cheers,
Drew

[#4]

Top 3 or 4 results are Always ads on Bing.

the funny thing is, when i search to download Edge, Bing shows me to download Brave. lol

now compare to Google results:

There you have it, first result, top result, the correct one, straight to the official Microsoft website.

if a user is not tech savvy and can't or don't pay attention to the URL of the search results in Bing, then they will most likely get infected, have unwanted software installed on their PC and whatnot.

[#5]

@Drew1903 

Bing insider and these stuff are irrelevant. what don't you just open a new incognit or InPrivate browsing window and do the same search i did in my screenshot and then post Your screenshot to show when you said you don't see ads.

Because I'm not doing anything or wearing ad magnet that Bing is showing me all these annoying misleading ads.

[#6]

@Drew1903 @ikjadoon @josh_bodner I have noticed this as well. Pin to Taskbar retains the correct icon

[#7]

@josh_bodner 

The suggestion to add --disable-features=RendererCodeIntegrity unfortunately does not change the broken behavior.

[#8]

@HotCakeX @Drew1903 If I may mention, I don't see any ads on Bing searches, either in normal windows and Incognito windows. See attached.

[#9]

- it's different based on your country. not all companies want their ads to be displayed on every country. it's called targeted advertisements.

- tracking prevention and adblocker extensions also have effect

[#10]

@HotCakeX Good point. Thanks for clearing that up!

[#11]

Oh anytime!

[#12]

@davequail 

Well, Dave, that makes, at least, 2 of us who have none/see none. Of course there are countless more.  As we oft say, it's another thing making Bing particularly cool . Nice Edge has it, by default.

Cheers,
Drew

[#13]

@Drew1903 

Spoiler

---

@Drew1903 wrote:

Well, Dave, that makes, at least, 2 of us who have none/see none. Of course there are countless more.  As we oft say, it's another thing making Bing particularly cool . Nice Edge has it, by default.

---

Yeah then I must be making these up.

there are countless more of these examples.

Also like I said:

- it's different based on your country. not all companies want their ads to be displayed on every country. it's called targeted advertisements.

- tracking prevention and adblocker extensions also have effect

[#14]

@HotCakeX Incorrect—this taskbar icon bug confidently reproduces on Microsoft Edge Canary 81.0.389.0.

I reproduced it under 15 seconds...bolding your text that "this bug really doesn't exist on Canary" doesn't make it any more accurate, for what it's worth.

Bug reproduced on Canary 81.0.389.0 (HotCakeX's "test" from yesterday's Canary build)

Please read the reproduction steps more carefully, before making unfortunately erroneous claims. The bug doesn't affect every site. I've tested on two Edge Canary systems now with identical behavior. A screenshot from the system: the left is Canary; the right is a site-app pinned to the taskbar, from Canary. Renders the entire pinning icon system useless. Still needs to be fixed. 

Canary is as broken as Dev on this bug. Canary might even be worse because now that icon sometimes will take you to the new tab page. Either you did not test enough sites or mistakenly used a PWA or an already-cached icon or you hit another corner-case. 

[#15]

@ikjadoon Here's another broken build: 

Video reproducing the bug in 20 seconds on today's Canary 81.0.392.0 build

Before people want to ask "Why?" or "Not supported", this exact behavior is explicitly recommended by Edge:

Corner cases exist. Not all users get all bugs. But, let's not dismiss bugs without thoroughly testing them. Now we've properly added the latest two Canary builds to the "failing" category.

[#16]

@josh_bodner - Still having that same issue with Canary. The strange thing is that Beta is working fine but Dev nor Canary are working. They both have the exact same error.

[#17]

@ikjadoon 

Spoiler

---

@ikjadoon wrote:

@HotCakeX Incorrect—this taskbar icon bug confidently reproduces on Microsoft Edge Canary 81.0.389.0.

I reproduced it under 15 seconds...bolding your text that "this bug really doesn't exist on Canary" doesn't make it any more accurate, for what it's worth.

Bug reproduced on Canary 81.0.389.0 (HotCakeX's "test" from yesterday's Canary build)

Please read the reproduction steps more carefully, before making unfortunately erroneous claims. The bug doesn't affect every site. I've tested on two Edge Canary systems now with identical behavior. A screenshot from the system: the left is Canary; the right is a site-app pinned to the taskbar, from Canary. Renders the entire pinning icon system useless. Still needs to be fixed. 

Canary is as broken as Dev on this bug. Canary might even be worse because now that icon sometimes will take you to the new tab page. Either you did not test enough sites or mistakenly used a PWA or an already-cached icon or you hit another corner-case. 

---

1. It wasn't happening on Canary.
2. it wasn't a claim, it was a fact and what I experienced.
3. I read your reproduction steps carefully enough, still wasn't happening.
4. it's still not happening, Version 81.0.392.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)
5. I tested on the site you mentioned, Twitter.

[#18]

@ikjadoon 

Spoiler

---

@ikjadoon wrote:

@ikjadoon Here's another broken build: 

Video reproducing the bug in 20 seconds on today's Canary 81.0.392.0 build

Before people want to ask "Why?" or "Not supported", this exact behavior is explicitly recommended by Edge:

Corner cases exist. Not all users get all bugs. But, let's not dismiss bugs without thoroughly testing them. Now we've properly added the latest two Canary builds to the "failing" category.

---

Here, watch it

https://streamable.com/uscza

proof that Edge Version 81.0.392.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit) is Not broken.

my suggestion: try fully uninstalling your Edge and reinstall it again.

[#19]

Another video, because on the first one I accidentally closed Edge's main window before pinning Google to taskbar so you might say I cheated or something, here is the exact steps you showed in your own video

https://streamable.com/8m9so

so what am i missing?

[#20]

@josh_bodner  Microsoft edge started well but now the design looks like windows 10 with inconsistent design, Icons, scrollbar and folders...

[#21]

@Sansaido Re: "On a sidenote: Might you assist me in changing my username here in the MTC? That would be much appreciated!"

Our MTC admin, @Allen, might be able to help you with that! Looping him in.

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge