We’re back in business, boys! Development of Edge was paused for a couple of weeks to align with the Chromium project itself, but Edge 84 rollout has officially begun today.
And this release comes just two days after Chrome released version 84 to the desktop.
Users in the stable channel are treated to this new version of the web browser that comes with a solid set of improvements to some of its most used features. We are still waiting for the bigwig additions like the ability to sync history or tabs, but these relatively minor improvements are, nonetheless, welcome.
While Edge 83 was a major update that brought along features like extension sync and dynamic profile switching, this iteration is focused on small but useful enhancements.
Like those related to Collections, improvements to the PDF reading experience, as well as enhancements to accessibility features, to go with an array of security updates.
You can check out the release notes page for the complete changelog for what this version brings.
Starting with Collections, we have performance improvements first off, with Microsoft noting that actions like exporting data to Excel will be much faster in this version. There is also a new note feature in this tool that lets users pin notes right to a page or place them separately.
It is also possible to change the background color of these notes now.
Another handy set of improvements is reserved for the built-in PDF reader in the browser. Edited PDFs can no be saved as is, rather than having to create a copy of the file after making the edits. The web browser is also getting a Read Aloud feature for PDF files — this was present in Legacy Edge.
In addition to these primary enhancements, there are a host of minor improvements like giving nicknames to saved cards, support for Native File System API and Storage Access API.
There are new DevTools features in Edge 84 too, like support for Windows high contrast mode, matching keyboard shortcuts between DevTools and VS Code, and more.
As usual, the update should download automatically in the background for all users. You can also pull this new version manually by going to Settings > About Microsoft Edge and forcing the browse to check for and download the updates.
Happy downloading!
