This is what the new Chromium-based Edge looks like

Well, I've had it with Edge Since I can't uninstall it (on top of everything else ), I banished the icon from my taskbar. Last straw? Won't offer to save any passwords. Did all I could do via searching--not happening and I'm not reinstalling Windows just for this. Maybe someday I'll reinstate it, but not anytime soon.

Bye, Edge, you annoy the #&*$ out of me.

 

Hi,
what will now be your default browser?

 

what do you mean you can't uninstall it? i did uninstall it before?!?

 

Firefox!

Tried to reset, repair and re-install. That plus tried some registry edits which failed because the paths changed somewhere and the keys are no longer the same. Sorry for fuming here, but this was fulminating for a week now. One thing after another. I need a break, not to mention a chocolate cookie and some good hot coffee.

Thanks, you pointed me in the right direction. I whacked Edge with my good friend HiBit Uninstaller. Finito.

 

you're welcome, plat.
on a side note, i personally would not use hibit, but that's another story and ot, so i won't go into details here.

 

Although my settings have remained in place so far, I don't like the way Edge keeps adding shovelware like integrated Pinterest and shopping assistant. When Chrome Edge was first released I liked it, but at this point I don't trust it to respect privacy preferences.

In Chrome Edge Microsoft finally had a good browser but seems intent on ruining it. What next, reintroducing Active-X and Java?

 

I wouldn't trust it to save passwords. I find KeePass Portable 2.x works well with all browsers, including Edge and Chromium, without any extensions needed.

 

Yes many use PMs and swear by them. I could never acclimate to them myself though. No matter, Edge is outta here and staying off for the time being.

Edit: I know in Firefox, you can manually add passwords to a site and then Firefox will save them. I looked briefly for this same feature in Edge but didn't see it (admittedly wasn't looking too much). Edge doesn't have this functionality, does it? If so, all is forgiven.

 

Spoiler: Edge Save password

 

Thanks stapp and bjm_. I'll maybe download Edge sometime and see if you can manually add the site and its login info like you can in Firefox.

This is what I mean--this feature in Firefox. Is that the same thing as in your snip, bjm_?

Spoiler

 

No, Edge doesn't have this feature.

 

OK, thanks. Yes, I didn't think so. Edge sure could use this, right? Otherwise, I'd still have it around.

 

Microsoft Edge (Stable) Version 96.0.1054.57
Release date: December 14, 2021

Release notes for Microsoft Edge Stable Channel:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/de...-stable-channel#version-960105457-december-14

Stable channel security updates are listed here.
-----------
Download and deploy the new Microsoft Edge for business
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download

 

Microsoft Edge (Stable) Version 96.0.1054.62
Release date: December 17, 2021

Release notes for Microsoft Edge Stable Channel:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/de...-stable-channel#version-960105462-december-17

-----------
Download and deploy the new Microsoft Edge for business
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download

 

OK, I see. So what is the verdict, is it usable or will it break too many websites?

 

It hasn't broke anything for me so far. As stated in the other topic, it does affect performance so if you play browser games it might slow them down too much depending on the speed of your hardware.

 

OK I see. If it doesn't break too many sites than I guess it's not even a bad idea, at least if your extremely worried about browser exploits and think that current defense systems like AV and AE aren't good enough.

 

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/12/22/microsoft-edge-send-search-results/

 

I tried Edge on Linux again today, this time installing the Beta release, thinking *hoping* that it might be less privacy-invasive than the Windows version, but I was sadly mistaken There is a hard-coded setting, something to the effect that "required data is sent to Microsoft". There were other settings I didn't like either. I uninstalled it within 10 minutes of installing it.

EDIT

And yet I've been hypnotized by Microsoft - or at least by its security advantages - to try this browser again. It is at least locked down quite nicely with Apparmor profiles.

 

Yes indeed you need to act a lot in settings + flags to get more privacy from MS Edge.
In filterlist there is also a Windows anti-spy list updated September 2021 in which there are many Edge related connections.
But I have no idea if it is valid.
It would be necessary to verify.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker/master/data/hosts/extra.txt

Code:

0.0.0.0 a-0001.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0001.dc-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0002.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0003.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0003.dc-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0004.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0005.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0006.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0007.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0008.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0009.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0010.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0011.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-0012.a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 a-msedge.net
0.0.0.0 edgetipscdn.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 edge.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 msedge.api.cdp.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 www.msedge.net

 

Interesting list. Three months since last being updated is some cause for concern, maybe, unless the URL's never really change, then it would make sense.

EDIT

Btw, the footprint of Edge-beta on Linux is considerable, especially when compared to others:

1. Edge-beta: /opt/microsoft/ + /home/user/.config/microsoft-edge-beta/ = 377.5 MiB + 133.2 MiB=510.7 MiB total
2. Google-chrome-stable: /opt/google/ + /home/user/.config/google-chrome-stable/ = 270.3 MiB + 145.4 MiB = 415.7 MiB total
3. Firefox: /opt/firefox/ + /home/user/.mozilla/ = 222.6 MiB + 55.7 MiB = 278.3 MiB total

To be clear, there is no intent of an Edge vs other browsers; it's just to illustrate how large its installation size is. I would guess it's similarly large on Windows too.

 

chromium latest stable - 220mb
full featured profile - 351mb

latest chromium dev - 245mb
full featured profile - 323mb

firefox 95 x64 - 215mb
full featured profile - 200mb (very similar featured to chromium)

and ofc you have to deal with some "noise" from edge to microsoft, but same blocking as in firefox it lowers security. edge is trimmed to work best with windows 10/11, for other OS it has no benefit and you can stick with chrome, chromium, opera, vivaldi, brave whatever chromium derivate, or firefox

for windows 8, which has edgewebview installed because of cfosspeed (latest) the footprint has 533mb (w/o a profile). it is a completed msedge, but not usable that way, "msedge.exe" wont show up.

 

Okay so the footprint on Windows is similar to that on Linux. Thanks for the info. I installed Edge mostly out of curiosity and because on Linux only Chrome-based browsers will render Netflix streaming content without issues, or the need for an extension.