Microsoft Edge 85 stable released

Microsoft has released Edge 85.0.564.41 to the stable branch. The update is aligned with Chromium/Chrome releases, and brings improvements to the sync, Collections, PDF reader, Internet Explorer, and other features.

Microsoft Edge is now a Chromium-based browser with a number of exclusive features like Read Aloud and services tied to Microsoft instead of Google. The browser has already received a few updates, with support for ARM64 devices in Edge Stable 80. Also, Microsoft Edge is still supporting a number of aging Windows versions, including Windows 7, which has recently reached its end of support. Check out Windows Versions Supported by Microsoft Edge Chromium and Edge Chromium latest roadmap. Finally, interested users can download MSI installers for deployment and customization.

What's new Edge 85

Following the recently announced schedule, Microsoft has released version 85 to the Stable branch. The release notes come with the following highlights.

Feature updates

• On-premise synchronization of Favorites and Settings. Now you synchronize browser favorites and settings between Active Directory profiles within your own environment without the need for cloud sync.
• Microsoft Edge group policy support for trusting site + app combos to launch without a confirmation prompt.. Group policy support added that lets administrators add site + app combos that are trusted to launch without the confirmation prompt. This adds the ability for administrators to configure trusted protocol/origin combinations (such as Microsoft 365 apps) for their end-users to suppress the confirmation prompt when navigating to a URL that contains an app protocol.
• PDF Highlighter tool. This tool can be added to the toolbar for PDFs to easily highlight important text.
• The Storage Access API is available. The Storage Access API allows access to first-party storage in a third-party context when a user has provided a direct intent to allow storage that would otherwise be blocked by the browser's current configuration. For more information, see Storage Access API.
• Send to OneNote is available for Microsoft Edge Collections. Everyone's excited to be able to send the information they've gathered in Collections to OneNote, where they can append it to a larger project and collaborate with others! And even more importantly, in Microsoft Edge 85, you'll be able send content to Office for Mac products (Word, Excel, and OneNote) for both MSA and Azure Active Directory.
• DevTools updates. For details about the following updates, see What's New In DevTools (Microsoft Edge 85).
  • Microsoft Edge DevTools supports Surface Duo emulation. The Microsoft Edge DevTools can emulate the Surface Duo so you can test how your web content will look on dual-screen devices. To turn on this experiment in DevTools, enter Device Mode by pressing Ctrl+Shift+M on Windows or Command+Shift+M on macOS, and then select Surface Duo from the device drop-down list.
  • Microsoft Edge DevTools lets you match keyboard shortcuts to VS Code. The Microsoft Edge DevTools supports customizing keyboard shortcuts in the DevTools to match your editor/IDE. In Microsoft Edge 85, we are adding the ability to match DevTools keyboard shortcuts to VS Code. This change will help increase productively across VS Code and DevTools.

Policy updates

New policies

Thirteen new policies were added. Download the updated Administrative Templates from the Microsoft Edge Enterprise landing page. The following new policies were added.

• AutoLaunchProtocolsFromOrigins - Define a list of protocols that can launch an external application from listed origins without prompting the user.
• AutoOpenAllowedForURLs - URLs where AutoOpenFileTypes can apply.
• AutoOpenFileTypes - List of file types that should be automatically opened on download.
• DefaultSearchProviderContextMenuAccessAllowed - Allow default search provider context menu search access.
• EnableSha1ForLocalAnchors - Allow certificates signed using SHA-1 when issued by local trust anchors.
• ExemptDomainFileTypePairsFromFileTypeDownloadWarnings - Disable download file type extension-based warnings for specified file types on domains.
• IntensiveWakeUpThrottlingEnabled - Control the IntensiveWakeUpThrottling feature.
• NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled - Enable preload of the new tab page for faster rendering.
• NewTabPageSearchBox - Configure the new tab page search box experience.
• PasswordMonitorAllowed - Allow users to be alerted if their passwords are found to be unsafe.
• RoamingProfileSupportEnabled - Enable using roaming copies for Microsoft Edge profile data.
• RoamingProfileLocation - Set the roaming profile directory.
• TLSCsipherSuiteDenyList - Specify the TLS cipher suites to disable.

Obsoleted policies

• EnableDomainActionsDownload - Enable Domain Actions Download from Microsoft.
• WebComponentsV0Enabled - Re-enable Web Components v0 API until M84.
• WebDriverOverridesIncompatiblePolicies- Allow WebDriver to Override Incompatible Policies.

Edge users should receive the update automatically. If you didn't get it yet, you may force Edge to check for updates by navigating to the Menu > Help and feedback > About Microsoft Edge to trigger the update process.

Actual Edge Versions

• Stable Channel: 85.0.564.41
• Beta Channel: 85.0.564.41
• Dev Channel: 86.0.615.3
• Canary Channel: 86.0.621.0

Download Microsoft Edge

You can download pre-release Edge version for Insiders from here:

Download Microsoft Edge Insider Preview

The stable version of the browser is available on the following page:

Download Microsoft Edge Stable

Note: Microsoft has started delivering Microsoft Edge to users of Windows via Windows Update. The update is provisioned for users of Windows 10 version 1803 and above, and replaces the classic Edge app once installed. The browser, when delivered with KB4559309, makes it impossible to uninstall it from Settings. Check out the following workaround: Uninstall Microsoft Edge If Uninstall Button is Grayed Out

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