Dev Channel update to 84.0.495.2 is live

[josh_bodner]

Hello Insiders!  Today we’re releasing build 84.0.495.2 to the Dev Channel.  While there isn’t too much new to talk about this week, we do want to make users of Collections aware of a potential issue with syncing.  After the recent update to bring Collections to the Stable channel in version 81, it’s possible that Collections sync isn’t enabled by default in Beta (since it was just updated from version 81) or Stable.  If that’s the case, you’ll need to go to edge://settings/profiles/sync and turn it on yourself. 

Additionally, we put together an article highlighting some of Edge’s features that will make working from home easier:  https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/04/16/get-an-edge-while-working-from-home/.  We’ve also started a discussion for people who have seen the mouse cursor disappear when interacting with Edge, as we’re trying to get to the cause of it:  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/discussion-mouse-cursor-sometimes-disappears/m-p/....  As for this week’s notable features and fixes: 

Added features: 

• Added the ability for Guided Switch to offer to switch to personal profiles instead of just work or school profiles. 
• Added a keyboard shortcut (Alt+Shift+R on Windows) to show the options bar in Immersive Reader. 
• Added support for SmartScreen to block potentially unwanted apps that are downloaded as ClickOnce or DirectInvoke applications. 
• Added the ability for developers to debug Edge instances that are running in headless mode. 

Improved reliability: 

• Fixed an issue where right clicking the back/forward buttons to open the Travel Log crashes the browser. 
• Fixed an issue where clicking on the link on the History management page to clear browsing data crashes the browser. 
• Fixed an issue where attempting to Share multiple times in quick succession sometimes crashes the browser. 
• Fixed an issue where Edge installation on Mac sometimes hangs. 
• Fixed an issue where the first IE mode tab in a window sometimes hangs on its initial navigation. 
• Fixed an issue where browser sign in fails because the sign in dialog sometimes doesn’t appear. 
• Fixed another issue where random renderer processes sometimes have high, consistent CPU use. 

Changed behavior: 

• Fixed an issue where pasting into text fields on webpages sometimes doesn’t work. 
• Fixed an issue where Edge’s Taskbar shortcut sometimes disappears. 
• Fixed an issue where apps appear in the … > Apps menu that shouldn’t. 
• Fixed an issue where the website info flyout isn’t correct in Immersive Reader. 
• Fixed an issue where certain address fields can’t be left empty when editing an address saved in Settings even though they should be able to be. 
• Fixed an issue where the on-screen keyboard sometimes dismisses other popups when it shouldn’t. 
• Fixed an issue where the URL shown in Immersive Reader is the webpage’s original URL instead of one specifying that reading mode is currently active. 
• Fixed an issue where the link to review security settings on the Sync settings page goes to the location for personal accounts even when signed into the browser with a work or school account. 
• Fixed an issue where Collections exported to Word sometimes don’t have the language set properly. 
• Fixed an issue where Guest window tabs appeared as “InPrivate” in the browser Task Manager. 
• Fixed an issue where the Find on Page popup sometimes doesn’t appear when using Shy UI. 
• Fixed an issue where the username displayed on the Privacy Settings page is sometimes a lot of 0’s. 

Known issues: 

• Users of the Kaspersky Internet Suite who have the associated extension installed may sometimes see webpages like Gmail fail to load.  This failure is due to the main Kaspersky software being out of date, and is thus fixed by making sure the latest version is installed. 
• Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before.  Fixing this should be easier now that the deduplicator tool is available.  However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for some of the fixes we’ve made to come to Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.  We hope that this will be improved now that version 81 is released to Stable. 
• After an initial fix for it recently, some users are still experiencing Edge windows becoming all black.  Opening the Browser Task Manager (keyboard shortcut is shift + esc) and killing the GPU process usually fixes it.  Note that this only appears to affect users with certain hardware and is most easily triggered by resizing an Edge window. 
• Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other.  Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices.  This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag. 
• 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.

For those of you running Beta, we updated Beta to version 83 last week, and we couldn’t have done it without all your help! 

[#2]

@josh_bodner 

Well you keep on saying "...you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag", so I am going to keep on saying that the day that function disappears is the day I give up on Edge (both desktop and mobile as I use browsers as a laptop/mobile pair). Legacy Edge and this Edge 'personality' scrolling is an abomination on my (non-touch) laptop. The scrolling with that flag disabled is perfect and exactly how I expect scrolling to be. You need to stop thinking about removing the flag, and instead have a proper settings option for the user to choose which scrolling behaviour they prefer on whichever platform. And, again, the behaviour of wobbling sideways on vertical scroll, and the contents bouncing past the top bottom -truly horrible behaviour - happen on every website equally, not just on 'certain websites'.

Just stop trying to foist your new bright idea scrolling behaviour on everyone and commit to giving users a  choice. You've got a mountain to climb to get a really significant share of the browser market, and offering choice will help a lot more than insisting everyone follow your latest 'cool idea'.

[#3]

@josh_bodner The last 2 Known Issues have been there for months. When are they expected to be resolved? Thank you.

[#4]

@mreinders thanks for keeping me honest!  The issue with the line appearing between webpages and the address bar wasn't fixed, but also doesn't appear to be occurring anymore.  Since we closed the bug on our end, I'll go ahead and remove this from the list. 

The audio issue is one that's both dependent on how people have their devices set up, as well as much more complicated to fix, so it will likely remain here for a while, although we have made a few fixes for specific causes as we find them.  There's also the fact that both of the main cases mentioned have easy workarounds, assuming people know how to get to the Windows volume mixer.  Regardless, we still are actively looking into this issue since we continue to get feedback about it, and even if there is an easy workaround, it's definitely not a good user experience.  

[#5]

@josh_bodner 

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@josh_bodner wrote:

• Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before.  Fixing this should be easier now that the deduplicator tool is available.  However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for some of the fixes we’ve made to come to Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.  We hope that this will be improved now that version 81 is released to Stable. 

I'm surprised that this is still a "known issue", and there has been no fix for it yet. This is a high priority bug, and it's not just happening for "some users", with people reportedly ending up with 25k duplicated bookmarks.

Here is how messed up bookmarks are on my devices right now -

People tend to use bookmarks more frequently than the newly introduced "collections", so it's very strange that this issue is being taken so lightly. What's the point of having sync enabled if you can't use it across devices?

[#6]

@ManishGiri Try Going To edge://favorites/removeDuplicates

[#7]

@bekalshenoy 

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@bekalshenoy wrote:

@ManishGiri Try Going To edge://favorites/removeDuplicates

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Please go through my Reddit post. I have already used the "Remove Duplicates" feature, but it only takes care of the duplicates on that particular computer you're on. As soon as you log on to Edge on another device (with the same account), all bookmarks get replicated on that device, as well as the first device, and in any other device you log on to.

Even if there is a significant time period between when you first run the removal tool and the next time you log on to another device (2 days, in my case), the replication still occurs, unlike what is mentioned in OP's post.

[#8]

It's terrible! Since version 84, I can't download .EXE files!!!! Even if the URL starts with HTTPS... Just try anything on SourceForge... How can I continue working? I loved the Dev branch until now. To be able to download EXE files, I now need to open Firefox... Will I always have to live with a browser to download software and one for normal life?

Please allow downloading EXE files, otherwise I can't continue with Edge!

[#9]

@josh_bodner I am facing a problem while importing password. Don't know if this is the right channel or not. I am using Microsoft Edge Chrome-based browser Dev Channel from a couple of months. Now, I want to change to Microsoft Edge Chrome-based browser Beta Version. So, after installing the Beta version, I was trying to get all the passwords from the Dev channel browser to Beta, but I am unable to do so. I exported the passwords as a CSV file, but how to import those CSV in the Beta version of the browser. Can anyone guide me on how to import passwords between different versions of the browser?

Thanks

[#10]

@josh_bodner What is Guided Switch? I can't find a description of this anywhere.

[#11]

@VincentBech 

Calm down. You are using a browser that is the step before the beta version. Errors will occur and if that's not a option for you, you should change to the stable channel.

With that being said, I have downloaded an exe file today with no problems. I recommend you use the feedback button to let Microsoft know what file you can't download. Probably be related to the new SmartScreen filter function.

[#12]

@ManishGiri we continue to make fixes in that area, but it takes a while for them to get down to Stable.  We expect that once the current Beta (version 83) makes it to Stable, it should make a big improvement with regard to both not duplicating as much as well as the changes done by the deduplicator getting synced more quickly.  

[#13]

@VincentBech could you be a little more specific about what the problem is?  Are you seeing any errors?  Is the download hanging?  Does it do anything different if you disable extensions or use an InPrivate window?  

[#14]

@onkurananda you shouldn't need to manually move your passwords over.  If you sign into Beta with the same account that you used to sign into Dev, then you can enable syncing and your passwords will be automatically brought over to Beta.  And unfortunately, that's the only way to get them over right now, since we haven't yet brought over the ability to manually import passwords from a file.  

[#15]

@ShortOkapi Guided Switch is our informal name for the dialogs that you'll see if you have multiple profiles added to the browser, they're a mix of both personal accounts and work or school accounts, and you have the setting enabled under edge://settings/profiles/multiProfileSettings to offer to switch to the proper profile for links that are opened from outside programs.  

[#16]

@josh_bodnerHi, result is the same if I go into Private Mode or if I turn off all extensions. I feel naked without any extension!!!  Make a simple test : try to download 7zip  :https://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/. I also tried a commercial simulation software (www.flexsim.com), but you need an account.

What happens is this: the download seems to happen, but the browser deletes the file when download is completed. There is no option to keep it. Can that be related to internet settings (from inetcpl.cpl)?

[#17]

@andersdkYes I seem to panic a little bit, but... Have you read this : https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-to-block-some-http-file-downloads-starting-with-chrome-83/

I thought Microsoft would have done something to bypass the mechanism from Chromium.  I have been using the Dev version since last October. Never experienced bugs other than the Paste issue in Gmail last week.  Chromium announced EXE would be blocked starting with version 84, and they are effectively blocked... Which is why I am a bit worried for the future!

[#18]

Add the option to remove the duplicate bookmarks.

[#19]

@VincentBech 

Downloads fine here.

You should read the article again.

Google is not blocking all EXE file downloads. They are blocking EXE file downloads over unsecure (non https) connections, if you start the download from a secure (https) site. So if your browser shows https in the browser URL, you will be blocked from downloading files from a http source.

There is a long way to blocking ALL EXE files. The blocking has been pushed out some versions, so from 84, you should only see a warning for EXE files, not a total block.

So if you can't download files, report it using feedback (go to the 7-Zip download page, click the feedback-button, and describe what's happening), and I'm sure the Edge team will figure out what's going on.

[#20]

@josh_bodner You know what really would help with working at home? Syncing history and open tabs...