D-18 : Bye Bye Internet Explorer, Hello Edge

Microsoft is making a major change with the browser in Windows 10, it's been a major pain point for them since the modern web era which in turn conceded the ground to players like Firefox and Chrome. So they decided to replace IE with a modern browser in Windows 10. First announced in January with code name Spartan, it was built from the scratch and was based on Edge, the rendering engine of IE but devoid of all the old stuff that was their for compatibility with older technologies. Later they branded the browser as Edge and with a slight tweak to the existing logo, introduced it the world during the Build 2015 developer conference. I feel they should have given a new logo to get rid of the negativity surrounding IE.

1. Design

The browser is lighter, faster and does have a minimalist flat design in accordance with Microsoft's modern design principles. It has got very little chrome and simple icons won't distract users from the content of the websites and it won't take long for the users to get in love with it.

2. Reading View

This is another feature in the browser which will strip all the ads, removes irrelavant styles and images and produces a clean readable version oaf the page. This mode can be activated by clicking on open book icon in the address bar. Also there are options available for changing the size of the font and viewing styles.

3. Cortana

Cortana the personal digital assistant in Windows 10  is much more integrated in to the OS and Edge is also not left behind. To activate it just right click on the select text in the page and choose "Ask Cortana". A slide out will appear which will be showing the relevant information about the text.

4. Reading List

Another new feature is the Reading List and it's quite different from the Favourite option what we had till now in IE. Normally we add links to the favourites if we are visiting the link more frequently or widely used. So if you just want ot bookmark the page to read it later at some point of time, you can make use of the Reading List feature.

5. Page Annotations

This is one of the unique feature in Edge when compared to the competitiors. It will allow you to annotate or highlight text right on the page itself and also helps you to share your marking right from the page itself. Gone are the days when you take a screenshot of the page, edit it with paint and sends as email from your email client, you can do all this from the Edge itself without leaving the page.

6. Extentions Support

This was one of the major feature lacking in IE. They get rid of ActiveX model of extention support which creating a lot security as well as performance issues and now there is no support for VB Script, Toolbars, BHO or ActiveX. Instead of they are working on extensiblity provided by HTML5 based on the HTML/JS based extention model.

7. Performance

Intial performance tests shown that the Edge and Chrome are neck and neck and in some cases better too. Anyway when compared with IE, it is miles ahead and definitely faster, more fluid.

Microsoft Edge is already beating IE, Chrome and Firefox in JavaScript benchmarks

8. Edge is an App

Earlier IE was tightly integrated into the OS, making upgrades/changes to the browser was a painful task as well as very time consuming. With Edge they made it an universal app which is available in the store too. Another advantage is that they can upadate Edge through store updates more frequently


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