New Microsoft Edge Dev channel build (83.0.474.0) adds notification and whitelist improvements

Brad Stephenson

Microsoft Edge browsing verification code issues

Build 83.0.474.0 is now live for Edge Insiders within the Dev channel. This latest test build of Microsoft’s new Edge browser adds a quieter option for notifications, better customization for the deletion of cookies, and better visualisation of favorite sites when performing a search.

Here’s the full release notes with all of the details:

Added features:

  • Added the ability to show which folder a favorite is in when you search for a favorite on the Favorites management page and then right click a result.
  • Added the ability to create a list of sites that are exempt from the deletion of cookies when the browser is configured to delete browsing data upon closing.
  • Added an option to use quieter website notifications that don’t show unprompted popups.
  • Added a search box to the Mac Touchbar when there is only one tab open.

Improved reliability:

  • Fixed an issue where typing in the address bar sometimes crashes the browser.
  • Fixed a crash when closing the browser.
  • Fixed an issue where the browser sometimes crashes when showing the Guided Switch popup.
  • Fixed an issue where exporting a Collection to Word sometimes crashes the browser.
  • Fixed an issue where exporting a Collection to Excel sometimes crashes the browser.
  • Fixed an issue where the browser sometimes crashes on launch when Application Guard is enabled.
  • Fixed an issue where navigating in an Application Guard window sometimes crashes the browser.
  • Fixed an issue where the Downloads management page sometimes crashes.
  • Fixed an issue where attempting to use the F12 Dev Tools in a language that’s different than the browser’s language sometimes causes the Tools to fail to launch.
  • Fixed an issue where websites sometimes hang when trying to load if Information Protection is enabled.

Changed behavior:

  • Fixed an issue where feedback screenshots are all black if the media autoplay blocking setting is set to Block.
  • Fixed an issue where menus like the … menu are sometimes displayed incorrectly near screen edges.
  • Fixed an issue where typing in the address bar while the left mouse button is pressed results in characters not being properly typed.
  • Fixed an issue where a tab that’s restored after restarting the browser will navigate to the same page when the back button is clicked if the page that was restored was blocked by SmartScreen before the browser restart.
  • Fixed some issues around interacting with windows for websites that are pinned to the Taskbar.
  • Fixed an issue where websites that should be viewed in IE mode are sometimes opened in regular tabs instead.
  • Fixed an issue where Guest mode is still available when the Force Sign In management policy is enabled.
  • Fixed an issue where an image sometimes won’t be added correctly to an item in a Collection and instead it will just show a loading spinner.
  • Improved messaging when using the Command+Q keyboard shortcut on Mac.  See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/macos-blog-improved-messaging-on-the-command-q-alert… for more details.

Known issues:

  • 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.  We hope that this will be improved once version 81 is released to Stable.
  • Some users are seeing high CPU use in tab or extension processes.  Usually, ending the process, for example via Task Manager, reduces the CPU use back down to normal.  We are currently investigating, and a set of steps to reliably reproduce this behavior would help us if anybody has some.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents.

Edge Insiders test early builds of Microsoft Edge for issues and provide feedback to Microsoft so that they can perfect it before pushing changes out to the general public.

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