It wouldn’t be a new Windows OS without a new browser. Darren Yates explores the new internet explorer-replacement called Edge
Internet Explorer has long been an object of derision amongst PC users over the years, whether it’s the security holes, the variable performance or its wobbly adherence to web standards. But incredibly, as of May this year, it still maintained more than 55% desktop market share, according to the latest available data from NetMarketShare (tinyurl.com/6umm2xe).
NEW WEB BROWSER
But Microsoft is taking the opportunity with Windows 10 to completely revamp its web browser components. First, it’ll feature a new web browser, originally called ‘Project Spartan’, now known as Microsoft Edge. But second, it’ll also come with a new web render engine. Well, sort of.
Since Internet Explorer 4.0, Microsoft has used its own proprietary engine called ‘Trident’ to render web pages — and it continues to do so with IE11. However, Edge will come with its own new rendering box of tricks. It turns out Microsoft engineers have taken Trident and hacked away the deadwood that was IE5.5-through-IE10 legacy bloatware to create a new light, lean engine with an IE11-only codebase (tinyurl.com/k39t7s6). And the performance so far is looking rather good.
NEW FEATURES
The new Edge browser is also one of the first examples of Microsoft’s new Universal Apps Platform, an app that will work on any version of Windows 10 with a GUI — desktop, mobile, even Xbox One. It has baked-in access to Cortana, Microsoft’s new voice recognition digital assistant, but the most obvious addition is the ‘inking’ feature, which allows you to draw, highlight and annotate right on the webpage. You can then share your ‘web notes’ with others via social networking or save them as favourites within the browser.
Apart from sharing your Web Notes, a new feature built into Windows 10 Preview Build 10158 is the ability to send them to OneNote, Microsoft’s note-taking app available in this preview.
One last surprising but welcome new feature will be Edge’s faster update schedule — Microsoft is calling it ‘regular’, which will make a nice change from previous efforts.
MORE CONFUSION
Windows 10 will include both IE11 and Edge, but when Microsoft first announced Project Spartan back in January 2015, it had planned to have the new Edge engine work on both browsers, switching automatically to the IE11/Trident engine when it detected legacy webpages. However, it seems after being hammered by user feedback, the company has hurriedly decided to keep the two browsers completely separate — Edge as the default browser with the new engine, while IE11 sticks with the old Trident engine. Based on Microsoft’s blog entries, it seems IE11 with dual-action rendering engines may have frightened enterprise users, so much so that Microsoft is now at pains to say IE11 will remain ‘fundamentally unchanged from Windows 8.1’ (tinyurl.com/q6fsvhr).
As of Build 10158 of Windows 10 Pro, you can find IE11 in the new Start menu, but only under ‘Windows Accessories’. Edge also comes with a similar stylized ‘e’ icon but without the gold ring.
PERFORMANCE
One thing certain is Edge delivers considerably improved performance and HTML5 support over IE11. We tested the latest available 20.10158.0 version of Edge up against the Internet Explorer 11.0.10158.0 release in Windows 10 Preview, in addition to Chrome 43.0.2357.130m and Firefox 39 Beta 7.
Overall, two things stand out from our tests — first, Edge is clearly faster than IE11, except on WebKit’s SunSpider 1.02 Javascript benchmark, where Microsoft already handsomely leads everyone else. But second, Edge has basically caught up to the performance levels of Chrome and Firefox — the differences on Octane 2.0 and Kraken 1.1 between Edge and the rest are minimal.
As for HTML5 support tested through HTML5test.com, Edge shows significant improvement here as well. However, while it’s now not far short of Firefox in that regard, there’s still a decent jump to the latest Chrome 43 from Google.
HOW-TO: CREATE WEB NOTES
The Edge release in Build 10158 of Windows 10 Preview has improved in the last couple of updates and Web Notes now work on many more web sites. If you’re keen to try it out, here’s what you do:
STEP 1: Fire up Edge and load up a web site. Next, select the notepad icon on the top-right of the browser — this pulls in Web Note’s new purple function menu across the address bar.
STEP 2: On the top-left, you’ll now find the basic controls including opaque (solid) marker and a transparent highlighter. You can choose the colour of each by clicking on the appropriate icon a second time to launch the colour picker. Now just click and drag your cursor to draw on the page.
Next, there’s the eraser tool to wipe away what you’ve done, followed by the typed note control. This turns the cursor into a cross-hairs icon and you just click in the approximate location of the page where you want your note to sit. Once the box is created, click inside and type your note. The rubbish bin icon inside deletes the typed note and the small numbered tag icon on the top left lets you drag the box anywhere on the page, but only before you save the Web note.
STEP 3: When you’re done, choose the disk icon on the top-right to save your web note, or the link-circle icon to share it with others. Edge stores the web note as a ‘favourite’ within the browser and as of Build 10158, default-stores it in the /<user>/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft/MicrosoftEdge subfolder.
ADVANCED SETTINGS
Because Edge is brand-new, Microsoft continues to tinker with it in the various Preview Builds we’ve looked at. Some of the old Advanced Settings from Build 10130 are now missing from Build 10158, such as no more ‘experimental features’ options. The new Advanced Settings menu is now an offshoot of the Settings menu (top-right three-lines icon). Here, you can choose settings such as turning on and off Adobe Flash Player. There’s also an option to replace Bing as the default address bar search option, although it’s greyed out in Build 10158.
WHAT DO WE THINK?
Given we’re only testing the Build 10158 Preview release, we’ll hold off on our final judgment of Edge until we get final-release code, but so far, it actually looks surprisingly good, performs much closer to HTML5 standard and has lots of zip. Is it more secure than IE11? We’ll have to wait and see.