Microsoft has announced a new update experience for the Edge browser on macOS. With the latest Edge Canary release, users can enable a hidden behind a flag native update experience. It ditches the current Microsoft AutoUpdate mechanisms in favor of a modern and faster alternative.
While Microsoft AutoUpdate mostly works fine, there are several issues. First, it is primarily made for Office apps, so the user may get confused why he is seeing Office updates next to browser updates. Second, sometimes, there are inconsistencies between Microsoft AutoUpdate and edge://settings/help page, where both show different versions installed. Finally, Microsoft AutoUpdate is just slow. If you close and then reopen Edge with a pending update, you will have to wait until Edge applies updates before restarting.
After enabling a new flag, macOS users will get a faster, more Windows-like update experience. It will be responsible just for updating Edge and related components rather than additional Microsoft products.
In addition, the browser will not annoy you with additional push notification. When a new version becomes ready to install, you will see a small green arrow overlay icon on the menu button in the top-right corner of the browser window. Finally, hitting the restart button will instantly relaunch the browser, so there is no need to wait until Edge applies a new update.
The new update experience is now available in Edge Canary version 90.0.8.816.0 and newer. It is currently hidden behind a flag, so you need to enable it manually. Besides, it is only available on Intel-based Macs. Microsoft says the new update experience will soon be available on Apple Silicon Macs as well.
Do note that these changes only apply to Edge on macOS. On Windows, Edge uses native update experience since the very beginning in 2019.
Source: Tech Community Forum.
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