Microsoft’s new Edge browser will be automatically delivered via Windows Update in January

Feature updates will come to Chromium-based Edge on a 6-week cycle

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The revampedEdgebrowser will be delivered toWindows 10users automatically via Windows Update when it’sofficially released on January 15, 2020,Microsofthas confirmed, along with some further details about how the browser will be maintained.

Chromium-based Edge will be deployed by Windows Update to every PC which is runningWindows 10version 1709 (Fall Creators Update, released late 2017) or newer.

As the software giant has already made clear, Edge won’t be tied into Windows 10’s biannual updates for new features, but instead these will be delivered on a rolling basis.

Microsoftclarified: “Feature updates will be released on a 6-week cycle (approximately.) Security and compatibility updates will be shipped as needed.”

And of course this allows Microsoft to be more responsive with maintaining and developing the browser, rather than making folks wait for twice yearly splurges of feature updates.

Seamless succession

The new Edge will seamlessly and completely replace the old version, with all relevant pins, tiles, and shortcuts automatically updated for the fresh version of the browser.

Microsoft further observed: “Most protocols that Microsoft Edge handles by default will be migrated to the next version of Microsoft Edge.”

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There are couple of other points worth noting, including that a Blocker Toolkit will be made available to firms who want to block the automatic deployment of the new Edge for whatever reason (and apparently this will be usable on a Windows 10 Home system, by an admin).

Furthermore, Microsoft announced that the Edge Addons store has been opened up so developers can submit their wares, and the firm noted that most existing extensions produced for Chromium should work straight off the bat in the new Edge browser, with no changes needed.

This wide support for extensions is certainly going to be part of the attraction of the new browser, compared to the limited availability of add-ons for the original Edge (which was quite a sticking point).

ViaZDNet

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

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