Dev channel update to 87.0.658.0 is live

[josh_bodner]

Hello Insiders!  Today we’re releasing build 87.0.658.0 to the Dev channel, and we’ve got a lot to talk about: 

• In light of their recent introduction in Dev, we’ve got a small overview of our work on PDF table of contents and scrolling improvements:  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/improvements-in-pdf-reader-table-of-contents-and-smo.... 
• In anticipation of its broader rollout, we’ve got an in-depth introduction of our new web screenshot capture tool:  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/introducing-web-capture-for-microsoft-edge/m-p/17213.... 
• For web developers, we’ve got an article announcing the general availability of the Edge Dev Tools extension for VS Code:  https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/10/01/microsoft-edge-tools-vscode/. 
• For those curious about how the browser works, we’ve got an in-depth look at our multi-process architecture:  https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/09/30/microsoft-edge-multi-process-architecture/.  Specifically, this can help answer why there are more Edge processes in Task Manager than there are tabs in the browser!
• Finally, from our performance team, we’ve got an explainer for how we think of “performance”:  https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/09/23/faster-leaner-more-efficient-microsoft-edge/. 

As for all of the new features and fixes this week: 

Added features: 

• Added the ability to translate selected text on a page. 
• Added the ability to never translate a particular site. 
• Added a management policy to Configure Speech Recognition.  Note that updates to documentation and administrative templates are still needed. 
• Obsoleted the management policy to Enable Deprecated Web Platform Features. 

Improved reliability: 

• Fixed an issue where opening Edge sometimes causes the device to bluescreen. 
• Fixed an issue where opening the Downloads management page sometimes crashes the browser. 
• Fixed a crash when opening a website installed as an app. 
• Fixed a crash when Password Monitor shows an alert. 
• Fixed an issue where using certain accessibility features like Narrator sometimes causes tabs to crash on certain versions of Windows 10. 
• Fixed an issue where dragging items into a Collection sometimes crashes the Collections pane. 
• Fixed an issue where Edge sometimes opens many command prompt windows with ERROR: file_io_win.cc(180). 

Changed behaviors: 

• Temporarily disabled the cards that appear when hovering the mouse over tabs. 
• Fixed an issue where there is sometimes blank space between tabs or between the new tab button and the last tab. 
• Fixed an issue where Read Aloud sometimes doesn’t start reading from the current location in PDFs. 
• Fixed an issue where the profile image on the Taskbar shortcut doesn’t match the image in the browser. 
• Fixed an issue where searching on the History management page sometimes doesn’t work. 
• Fixed an issue where using Guided Switch opens an additional new tab. 
• Fixed an issue where Guided Switch sometimes is triggered for popup windows. 
• Fixed an issue where text selected in PDFs sometimes doesn’t unselect when it should. 
• Fixed an issue where keyboard shortcuts registered by extensions sometimes don’t work. 

Known issues:  

• Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube.  As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed.  See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/known-issue-adblock-causing-errors-on-youtube/m-p/14... for more details. 
• Some users are still running into an issue where all tabs and extensions immediately crash with a STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_HASH error.  The most common cause of this error is outdated security or antivirus software from vendors like Symantec, and in those cases, updating that software will fix it. 
• 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. 
• 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.  For users with discrete GPUs, updating graphics drivers may help. 
• 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. 

As always, everything we do is for you.  You’re a vital part of our operation! 

[#2]

@josh_bodner 

here is one more issue in this build that i sent feedback for with problem recreation but thought i'd mention it here too.

make a collection and add an item to it. now try to drag and drop something from any webpage into that collection, you'll see the entire collections panel turns white.

(this only happens when collection already contains at least 1 item in it)

[#3]

@mkoninin 

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@mkoninin wrote:
This version crashes when I try to open "Voice options"

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Same here. the moment i click on "voice options" my browser crashes. I would send feedback with problem recreate too but the problem is, whenever the browser crashes, the problem recording tool crashes/close with it.

this is an issue that's been going on for a long time, I posted about it a year ago and sent feedback, they still haven't changed this behavior.

I suggested to separate Edge feedback and problem recording tool from the main browser process so that when browser crashes, the recording tool will keep running and record whatever happens before and during the crash.

[#4]

@HotCakeX I also found that "Voice options" works OK when I try open it when I read a PDF file.

[#5]

Yes, that's right, looks like the problem is only on web pages.

[#6]

1. It's great that Edge is trying to become more touch-friendly. However on my Surface tablet the new fullscreen swipe ggestures 

[#7]

@josh_bodner 

it is great news that Edge is trying to become a little more touch-friendly in v87! However, on my Surface Pro, the new full screen swipe gesture (to reveal the hidden toolbar) seems to be broken. It works very sporadically, it's very difficult to make the interface appear consistently and without scrolling down in the displayed page. Furthermore, when it actually works, clicking on any tab make it disappear immediately, once again. I hope these issues can be solved before the feature debuts. Thank you for your hard work!

Giovanni

[#8]

@HotCakeX It looks like the fix we made for drag and drop crashing the Collections pane last week wasn't sufficient, but we just re-fixed it today, which means it'll either make it into this week's Dev, or if it doesn't, it will definitely be fixed before we promote Dev to Beta.  

[#9]

@HotCakeX I could only get the issue to happen when I used the local voices (the ones that don't say Online).  

[#10]

@canesalato The bar disappearing when you select a tab is by design, but being unable to consistently get it to appear isn't.  We have one known issue that's a lot worse in Tablet mode where a single-finger swipe sometimes isn't registered.  However, a two-finger swipe seems to work a lot better, so you might try that and see if you have better luck with that until we get that fixed.  

[#11]

@josh_bodner Hi Josh, thank you for your answer!

About the bar disappearing when you select a tab being by design, it is an interesting choice. Personally, I found that it makes the interface feel a little "nervous". Sometimes I am not sure the tab I click is the right one, I am just looking for something. Having the bar disappearing continuosly feels a little aggravating to me. In addition, the bar also disappears when CLOSING tabs, like if it assumed that if users close a tab they surely want to go to the next one on the right rather than presenting the option to select another one, or open a new one. Again, nothing serious, one can make the bar reappear again, but it feels a little like constant friction (perhaps minor when using a mouse, but considerable when using touch). Like if the browser was trying a little too hard to be 100% efficient.=)

Another issue is that the bar disappears with absolutely no delay as soon as the mouse is not precisely over it. Because the panel itself is rather thin, it's quite easy to go out of it (even 1 mm) when moving the cursor and have it disappear. I have noticed that my grandmother, who is ~80 and whose hands are a little shaky has been having some considerable issues operating Edge in full screen because of this. I think just few seconds of delay would allow the cursor to go back over the bar and make things easier.

About the touch gesture, thank you for the tip! It seems to work a little better with two fingers, indeed. I still always scroll a little, by mistake, while trying to get the panel to appear and I still don't get it right 100% of the times. It would be nice to have an actionable gesture, where your finger precisely control the dragging of the panel. In other words, currently the user can perform a gesture but not manipulate the interface during the animation. It would be nice if this could change in the future as it would allow gestures that feel more natural. This is how many gestures work for example, on Android and iOS.

I hope my feedback can be useful to you and the team.