Latest Microsoft Edge Dev channel update brings Tracking Prevention, form fill and password syncing

Laurent Giret

Latest Microsoft Edge Dev channel update brings Tracking Prevention, form fill and password syncing

Microsoft has released yesterday the build 78.0.249.1 to the Microsoft Edge Dev Channel, which brings several new features such as Tracking Prevention, form fill and password syncing, as well as other features and fixes. For now, Tracking Prevention is available behind an experimental flag, and once it’s turned on you’ll be able to choose between three different levels of tracking prevention.

Latest Microsoft Edge Dev channel update brings Tracking Prevention, form fill and password syncing

Form fill and password syncing is the second big new feature in this new Dev build, and it’s also available for work and school accounts. “Like syncing for personal accounts, there are certain types of items like history that aren’t available to sync just yet but will be coming in the future,” the Edge team explained.

Here are the other new features and fixes available in this latest Dev channel update:

Some other new features this week:

  • Added a warning message when giving websites permission to access a device’s location if Windows 10’s global location permission is disabled.
  • Added support for exiting full screen mode using the ESC key on Mac.
  • Added the ability for websites to detect when they’re running on Windows in S mode.

Stability fixes:

  • Fixed a crash during the first run experience.
  • Fixed an issue where navigating to a new site in an IE mode tab sometimes crashes the browser.
  • Fixed an issue where IE mode tabs crashed when opening certain URLs.
  • Fixed an issue where using IE mode in InPrivate sometimes crashes the browser.
  • Fixed an issue where an IE mode tab that’s frozen can sometimes freeze the entire browser.
  • Fixed an issue where searching for apps on edge://apps sometimes causes the page to crash.
  • Fixed an issue where some websites installed as apps won’t load on Mac.
  • Fixed a crash when using media casting.

Behavior fixes:

  • Fixed an issue where searching in the address bar sometimes uses Bing despite a different search provider being selected.
  • Fixed an issue where searches from the address bar sometimes bring back results from the wrong locale.
  • Fixed an issue where right clicking on some browser UI is instead treated as a left click.
  • Fixed an issue where the tooltip for the Stop button had a placeholder string in it ($1).
  • Fixed an issue where browser syncing sometimes gets stuck in the “Initialization” state.
  • Fixed an issue on Mac where the theme selection dropdown in Settings didn’t work.
  • Changed the keyboard combination to open the More menu (…) on Mac.
  • Fixed an issue where screenshots weren’t able to be sent alongside feedback.
  • Fixed an issue where uninstalling websites that were installed as apps from the Start Menu doesn’t remove them from the edge://apps page.
  • Fixed an issue where opening PDF files using Application Guard sometimes fails.
  • Fixed an issue where IE mode tabs would sometimes prevent the window they’re in from being closed.
  • Fixed an issue where IE mode tabs sometimes don’t have their content sized properly when the tab first loads.
  • Fixed an issue where using Read Aloud sometimes causes webpage content to move unexpectedly.
  • Fixed an issue where the link to manage favorites opens in the current tab instead of a new one.
  • Changed management policies to apply to all installed channels on Mac instead of targeting individual channels.

In case you missed it, Microsoft officially released the Edge Beta channel earlier this week, which will get new features every six weeks. You can run the Canary, Dev, and Beta channels side by side on your PC, and the Canary channel also received the new Collections features two days ago. Just like Tracking Prevention, this new content curation feature is currently available behind an experimental flag.