Build 87.0.644.4 brings Kiosk Mode and Dark Mode improvements to Microsoft Edge Dev channel

Brad Stephenson

Microsoft Edge browsing verification code issues

Build 87.0.644.4 is now live for Edge Insiders on the Dev channel. This latest update adds improvements to the Kiosk Mode and also brings the Dark Mode aesthetic to the sidebar search if enabled.

Other notable changes include the addition of Favorites duplicate prevention, fixes for smooth scrolling and fullscreen YouTube videos, and sharper PDF files.

Here’s the full patch notes:

Added features:

  • Added dark theme support to sidebar Search.
  • Rolled out support more broadly for new Kiosk Mode features like idle timeout and automatic download deletion via management policy.
  • Improved reliability:
  • Fixed an issue where installing the latest version of Safari on Mac will cause Edge to show Error Code 6 instead of loading tabs.
  • Fixed an issue where PDFs don’t load.
  • Fixed an issue where certain websites crash immediately.
  • Fixed a crash when closing a window.
  • Fixed a crash when choosing where to download a file.
  • Fixed a crash on launch on Mac.

Changed behavior:

  • Improved favorites deduplication by preventing duplicates from being able to exist to begin with.  Note that this only affects any favorites that are synced moving forward, and existing duplicates on devices must still be removed manually.
  • Improved support for websites pinned to the Taskbar to show informational badges.
  • Fixed an issue where smooth scrolling stops working.
  • Fixed another cause of Youtube videos not entering fullscreen properly and instead zooming a lot or growing to the size of the whole window.
  • Fixed an issue on Mac where Shy UI or the tops of webpages aren’t functional in fullscreen mode.
  • Fixed an issue where file sharing using the Web Share API fails.
  • Fixed an issue where unpacked extensions that fail to reload are left in a disabled state with no way to fix them.
  • Fixed an issue where dropdown inputs on webpages sometimes don’t appear.
  • Fixed an issue where cancelling edits on Collections items edits them anyway.
  • Fixed an issue where certain websites like NFL don’t sign in properly when Tracking Prevention is enabled.
  • Fixed an issue where the keyboard shortcut to invoke search in the Sidebar doesn’t work in PDFs.
  • Fixed an issue where Read Aloud in PDFs doesn’t start from the current selection or location.
  • Fixed an issue where ink drawn on PDFs appears blurry.

Known issues:

  • Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube.  As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed.  See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/known-issue-adblock-causing-errors-on-youtube/m-p/14… for more details.
  • Some users are still running into an issue where all tabs and extensions immediately crash with a STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_HASH error.  The most common cause of this error is outdated security or antivirus software from vendors like Symantec, and in those cases, updating that software will fix it.
  • Users of the Kaspersky Internet Suite who have the associated extension installed may sometimes see webpages like Gmail fail to load.  This failure is due to the main Kaspersky software being out of date, and is thus fixed by making sure the latest version is installed.
  • Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before.  Fixing this should be easier now that the deduplicator tool is available.  However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for some of the fixes we’ve made to come to Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.
  • After an initial fix for it recently, some users are still experiencing Edge windows becoming all black.  Opening the Browser Task Manager (keyboard shortcut is shift + esc) and killing the GPU process usually fixes it.  Note that this only appears to affect users with certain hardware and is most easily triggered by resizing an Edge window.  For users with discrete GPUs, updating graphics drivers may help.
  • Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other.  Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices.  This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag.
  • There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it.  In another, restarting the browser fixes it.

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