14 DAY TRIAL // The Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge officially launched earlier this year on Windows and macOS as a manual download, and now the application is offered to Windows users via Windows Update as well.
Like Google Chrome, Edge browser is maintained as part of several channels and updated accordingly:
Microsoft Edge Canary – Updates every day Microsoft Edge Dev – Updates every week Microsoft Edge Beta – Updates every six weeks Microsoft Edge Stable – Updates every six weeks
And while this schedule pretty much makes sense, Microsoft decided to provide a bit more clarity into how it wants to update Microsoft Edge browser, something that would come in handy to enterprises that need more time to prepare for every release.
The company says this is something that eases deployment in large organizations, and in addition to a release schedule, it’s also sharing a product roadmap with more information on the enterprise features coming to the browser.
“Since releasing the new Microsoft Edge, we’ve heard feedback that customers, especially in enterprise environments, need more visibility into our feature roadmap and release schedule so they can plan deployments and prepare for upcoming changes,” Microsoft says.
With Microsoft Edge version 84 already available for download, the next major release is Edge 85, which is scheduled to go live in the beta channel next week. As for the release in the stable channel, it’s likely to land in last week of August, as Microsoft explains in the release schedule embedded below:
| Version | Release status | Beta Channel Release week | Stable Channel Release week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 81 | Released Version |
02-20-2020 81.0.416.12 | 04-13-2020 81.0.416.53 |
| 82 | Released | Cancelled | Cancelled |
| 83 | Released Version |
04-22-2020 83.0.478.13 | 05-21-2020 83.0.478.37 |
| 84 | Released Version |
06-02-2020 84.0.522.11 | 07-16-2020 84.0.522.40 |
| 85 | Target release | Week of 07-27-2020 | Week of 08-27-2020 |
| 86 | Target release | Week of 09-07-2020 | Week of 10-08-2020 |
| 87 | Target release | Week of 10-19-2020 | Week of 11-19-2020 |
| 88 | Target release | Week of 12-07-2020 | Week of 01-21-2021 |
| 89 | Target release | Week of 02-01-2021 | Week of 03-04-2021 |
As for what’s coming to enterprises in the coming browser updates, Edge 85 is bringing important improvements in this regard in the coming versions aimed at the stable channel (all of them on Windows, of course).
For example, Edge 85 will come with Group Policy support for trusting site and application combos to launch without a confirmation prompt but also ship with a policy to allow admins to choose which file types are exempted from file-type security warnings. Edge 85 will also include a preview version of Enterprise Site List Manager for Internet Explorer Mode.
The migration to Chromium allowed Microsoft to make Edge a cross-platform offering, so in addition to Windows 10, the browser is also available on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and macOS. The software giant is also working on a Linux version of the browser, and while no ETA has been shared just yet, a preview build is expected by the end of the year.