Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge
	Microsoft Edge 120 running on Windows 11
Type	Web browser
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Operating system	Microsoft Windows; Android; iOS; macOS; Linux
Supported platforms	x86, x64, arm64
Initial release version
Initial release date	2015-01-30
Latest release version	128.0.2739.79
Latest release date	2024-09-12
Latest pre-release version	129.0.2792.41(Beta)
Latest pre-release date	2024-09-13(Beta)
Other name(s)	Project Spartan(preliminary)
License	Proprietary
Website	Official documentation; Introduction page
Succeeds	Internet Explorer
Successor

Microsoft Edge is a web browser developed by Microsoft. It was created with the aim to replace Internet Explorer as the default browser in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The original version, now called Edge Legacy, is a UWP app using the EdgeHTML and Chakra engines, however, the browser has since been redesigned using the Chromium codebase using the project's Blink and V8 engines. Since the engine switch, new versions of the browser for Windows 7 and later, as well as macOS, Android, iOS and desktop Linux distributions have been introduced.

The Chromium-based Edge replaced Internet Explorer (IE) in Windows 11 for compatibility with Google Chrome. Installing the preview rollup package released on 14 February 2023 disables standalone Internet Explorer on certain versions of Windows 10.

Edge Legacy[edit | edit source]

The original Edge (codenamed Spartan) is based on the EdgeHTML rendering engine, a derivative of the Trident engine used by Internet Explorer that removes most legacy functionality, and the Chakra JavaScript engine introduced in Internet Explorer 9. Originally, Spartan was to be the rendering engine for the next version of Internet Explorer (and several betas of Windows 10 included the option to use EdgeHTML instead of Trident in IE11, likely so Microsoft could test the rendering engine without having to test the new UI as well) and was speculated to be named IE12, but Edge eventually became its own browser, despite using an IE-like logo.

Following the introduction of the new Chromium-based Edge, it is referred to as Microsoft Edge Legacy and is unsupported since 9 March 2021.

Chromium version[edit | edit source]

On 6 December 2018, Microsoft announced a plan to rebuild Edge from scratch, based on Chromium. The plan called for the new Edge to be available for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, as well as "other platforms like macOS". The first preview version of the new browser was officially released on 8 April 2019, although a build had already leaked two weeks prior. The final version was released on 15 January 2020.

On 17 August 2020, Microsoft announced that the legacy version of Edge would no longer be supported from 9 March 2021 and that they recommend people to switch to the Chromium-based version.

The Windows 10 October 2020 Update and Windows Server 2022 are the first releases of Windows and Windows Server to include the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, respectively.

Internet Explorer Mode[edit | edit source]

Microsoft Edge includes the Internet Explorer Mode, which uses the Trident engine of Internet Explorer 11 to display websites. Edge can be configured to display selected websites in Internet Explorer Mode, if they have trouble with the Blink engine. It is only available for Windows, intended for enterprise usage and to replace the Internet Explorer 11 app on Windows.

Internet Explorer Mode will be supported until at least 2029.