Microsoft has updated the stable channel of the Edge browser with the build 81.0.416.53. The release comes with a number of new features, includes plenty of fixes and general improvements, and new Group Policies.
Microsoft Edge is now a Chromium-based browser with a number of exclusive features like Read Aloud and services tied to Microsoft instead of Google. The browser has already received a few updates, with support for ARM64 devices in Edge Stable 80. Also, Microsoft Edge is still supporting a number of aging Windows versions, including Windows 7, which has recently reached its end of support. Check out Windows Versions Supported by Microsoft Edge Chromium and Edge Chromium latest roadmap. Finally, interested users can download MSI installers for deployment and customization.
What’s new in Microsoft Edge 81 Stable
Feature updates
- Collections is now available. You can get started by clicking the Collections icon next to the address bar. This action opens the Collections pane where you can create, edit, and view Collections. We designed Collections based on what you do on the web. If you’re a shopper, a traveler, a teacher, or a student, Collections can help. Learn more.
- Allow the removal (Hide from toolbar) of the Collections button from the Microsoft Edge toolbar for consistency.
- On-prem Active Directory account auto sign in will only be targeted to organizations that turn it on. If users were already signed in with an on-prem AD account, they will be able to sign out of it. Users will only be automatically signed in with the primary account on their operating system if it’s an MSA or an Azure AD account. Admins can enable auto sign in with an on-prem AD account using the ConfigureOnPremisesAccountAutoSignIn policy.
- Application Guard. Extensions support now available in the container.
- Added a message to inform users that Internet Explorer isn’t installed when they navigate to a page that’s configured to open in Internet Explorer mode.
- Updated the 3D View tool in Microsoft Edge DevTools with a new feature to help debug z-index stacking context. 3D View shows a representation of the DOM (Document Object Model) depth using color and stacking, and the z-Index view helps you isolate the different stacking contexts of your page. Learn more.
- The F12 Dev tools are localized in 10 new languages, so they will match the language used in the rest of the browser. Learn more.
- Added support for Dolby Vision playback. On Dolby Vision-enabled Windows 10 Build 17134 (April 2018 Update), websites can show Dolby vision content. See how to enable Dolby Vision content from Netflix.
- Microsoft Edge can now identify and remove duplicate favorites and merge folders with the same name. To access the tool, click the star on the browser’s toolbar and select “Remove duplicate favorites”. You can that confirm changes and any updates to your favorites will be synced across devices.
- We heard from users it can be difficult to distinguish a normal browsing window in dark theme from an InPrivate window since both window frames are dark. The new solid InPrivate blue pill in the top right corner helps reassure users they are browsing InPrivate.
- Open external links in the correct browser profile. Select a default profile for links opened for external apps to open in from edge://settings/multiProfileSettings.
- Added a warning that alerts users who sign into a browser profile with an account after being previously signed in with another account. This warning will help prevent unintentional data merging.
- If you have payment cards saved in your Microsoft account, you can use them in Microsoft Edge while filling out payment forms. The cards in your Microsoft account will sync across desktop devices and the full details will be shared with the website after two-factor authentication (CVC code and your Microsoft identity.) For further convenience, you can choose to securely save a copy of the card on the device during authentication.
- Line Focus is designed for users who like to focus on a limited part of the content as they read. It lets users keep the focus on one, three, or five lines at a time and dims out the rest of the page to let users read without distraction. Users can scroll using touch or arrow keys and the focus shifts accordingly.
- Microsoft Edge is now integrated with Windows Speller on Windows platforms 8.1 and above. This integration provides greater language support, with access to more language dictionaries and the ability to use Windows custom dictionaries. There’s no further action needed from the users when a language has been added in the OS language settings. Also, a language spellcheck toggle is enabled in Microsoft Edge settings.
- When PDF documents are opened using Microsoft Edge, users will now be able to create highlights, change color, and delete highlights. This feature helps in referencing important parts of the document later, and for collaboration.
- When loading long PDF documents that have been optimized for web, the pages being viewed by the user will be loaded faster, parallelly, while the rest of the document is loading.
- Now it’s easier to start the Immersive Reader for a website by just pressing the F9 key.
- Now it’s easier to start Read Aloud by using a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + U).
- Added an MSI command line parameter that lets you suppress Desktop icon creation when you install Microsoft Edge. The following example shows how to use this new parameter:
MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX64.msi DONOTCREATEDESKTOPSHORTCUT=true
There will be a group policy to support this functionality in an upcoming release.
Policy updates
New policies
11 new policies were added. You can download the updated Administrative Templates. The following new policies were added.
- AmbientAuthenticationInPrivateModesEnabled – Enable Ambient Authentication for InPrivate and Guest profiles.
- AudioSandboxEnabled – Allow the audio sandbox to run.
- ForceLegacyDefaultReferrerPolicy – Use a default referrer policy of no-referrer-when-downgrade.
- GloballyScopeHTTPAuthCacheEnabled – Enable globally scoped HTTP auth cache.
- ImportExtensions – Allow importing of extensions.
- ImportCookies – Allow importing of Cookies.
- ImportShortcuts – Allow importing of shortcuts.
- InternetExplorerIntegrationSiteRedirect – Specify how “in-page” navigations to unconfigured sites behave when started from Internet Explorer mode pages.
- StricterMixedContentTreatmentEnabled – Enable stricter treatment for mixed content.
- TLS13HardeningForLocalAnchorsEnabled – Enable a TLS 1.3 security feature for local trust anchors.
- ConfigureOnPremisesAccountAutoSignIn – Configure automatic sign in with an Active Directory domain account when there is no Azure AD domain account.
Policy name and caption changes
The policy OmniboxMSBProviderEnabled is changed to AddressBarMicrosoftSearchInBingProviderEnabled – The caption for the policy is “Enable Microsoft Search in Bing suggestions in the address bar”.
Deprecated policies
The following policies continue to work in this release. They will become “obsolete” in a future release.
- WebComponentsV0Enabled – Re-enable Web Components v0 API until M84.
- WebDriverOverridesIncompatiblePolicies – Allow WebDriver to Override Incompatible.
Known issues
- Fixed an issue where IE mode on Microsoft Edge caused an ongoing download dialog to show even after the file was downloaded.
- Fixed an issue where Microsoft Edge was dropping session cookies when a page already in IE mode triggered to open a new IE mode tab.
Download Microsoft Edge
You can download the stable version of the browser from this page:
Download Microsoft Edge Stable
Actual Edge Versions
- Stable Channel: 81.0.416.53
- Beta Channel: 81.0.416.53
- Dev Channel: 83.0.474.0 (see what’s new)
- Canary Channel: 84.0.484.0
For pre-release versions, Microsoft is currently using three channels to deliver updates to Edge Insiders. The Canary channel receives updates daily (except Saturday and Sunday), the Dev channel is getting updates weekly, and the Beta channel is updated every 6 weeks. Microsoft is going to support Edge Chromium on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, alongside macOS, Linux (coming in the future) and mobile apps on iOS and Android.
You can download pre-release Edge version for Insiders from here: