14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Edge has finally received extension support in the just-debuted Windows 10 Redstone build 14291, in anticipation of a public release scheduled to take place later this year, most likely in June.
Browser extensions, a feature that’s already available in other apps such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, are one of the most requested options in Microsoft Edge, so with this release, Redmond not only improves capabilities of its app but it also shows that it’s listening to received feedback.
At this point, since it’s just a preview build, Microsoft Edge comes only with three extensions, namely Mouse Gestures, Microsoft Translator, and Reddit Enhancement Suite. However, the company has already confirmed that it’s working with partners to bring more popular add-ons on Windows 10, including AdBlock, Adblock Plus, Amazon, LastPass, Evernote and more.
Manual install for now, automatic in Redstone
As Microsoft says, these extensions need to be downloaded and sideloaded “for testing purposes,” but when they are available for a general release, Microsoft will publish all of them in the Windows Store for easy download and install.
“With this in mind, we have built Microsoft Edge so customers can add extensions to the browser with the confidence that they will operate as expected,” Drew DeBruyne, General Manager of Microsoft Edge, explains.
“One of our highest priorities is to ensure that Microsoft Edge is the safest, most reliable and fastest browser we could build, and our experience over the past 20 years has taught us that poorly written or even malicious add-ons were a huge source of security, reliability and performance issues for browsers.”
Microsoft wants the majority of extensions on Google Chrome to work on Edge with little to no modifications at all, in order to allow easy porting and thus make sure that more add-ons would arrive on Windows 10 in the shortest possible time.
The company will make browser extensions one of the key topics at the BUILD developer conference taking place later this month, as it hopes the three-month gap between the event and the debut of the Redstone update (and consequently of the Edge extensions for general users) will bring a plethora of extensions in the store.
