Illustration by Stephen Shankland / CNET
Microsoft will unveil its old Edge browser from Windows 10 computers on April 13, a major step in its years-long effort to shift its large customer base to a modern browser.
Two decades ago, the software giant’s Internet Explorer crushed competitors such as Netscape Navigator and dominated the market, but Microsoft let the software dwindle. Newer competitors like Firefox and Chrome have taken the initiative and Apple’s Safari has started a revolution in mobile browsers. Microsoft could not keep up, even after trying to strip IE into a modernized Edge, and moved Edge to Google Chrome’s open source Chromium Foundation. It renamed the earlier Edge to Edge Legacy.
IE has been a relic for years, but now Edge Legacy is also going on the software dump. On Friday, Microsoft announced that a Windows security update will install the new Edge if it is not already installed, and will remove Edge Legacy. The new Edge is already the default browser on the latest Windows 10 version.
Microsoft has dramatically changed its position on browsers over the years. Where it once saw them as a threat to Windows, a competitive software foundation used on any device, it’s now browsers. On computers, it is the most widely used software, and browser-based applications help Microsoft expand its services beyond Windows.
Microsoft released the first test version of the new Edge for public testing in April 2019 and released the first stable version in January 2020. The software is similar to Google’s dominant Chrome, depending on the core software, but contains differences like a vertical tab collections to house information you gather on the web.
It also designed Edge features, such as enhanced searches, to help Microsoft’s large number of business users.