14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released a new version of Microsoft Edge for the Dev channel, bringing the browser to version 79.0.287.2.
The changelog is huge, so there’s a lot to try out in today’s update, including two major feature additions, namely media autoplay blocking and new customizations for the new tab page.
Media autoplay blocking allows users to configure how they want autoplaying media to be blocked when loading a website. Similar controls are already available in other browsers, and given they are now part of the Dev channel for Edge, they will also be offered when the app reaches the stable stage.
Microsoft has also refined the Tracking Prevention screen with a list of the trackers that are blocked, and the browser also displays a list of exceptions to provide you with more control over this feature.
Improvements for the new tab page
Josh Bodner, part of the Microsoft Edge dev team, explains what’s new for the new tab page:
“First, the new tab page now supports dark theme. Next, you can scroll through previous Bing images of the day using the arrows at the bottom left of the page. While you’re scrolling, if you scroll down to the news feed, you’ll see that we added more personalization options. And finally, if you don’t want to see the news feed at all, now you don’t have to, because we added the option to turn it completely off!”
There are many other fixes and smaller improvements, and you can find them all in the changelog embedded after the jump.
Otherwise, it’s important to keep in mind that Microsoft Edge Dev is still a preview version of the browser, and despite that these builds seem to be pretty reliable, there’s a chance you might come across other bugs every now and then while using them.