A new dev build of Microsoft Edge browser is live

Aug 13, 2020 05:38 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has just released a new update for Microsoft Edge browser in the Dev channel, and just as expected, it comes with a bunch of new features and improvements that users are going to like.

The new version of Edge Dev is 86.0.601.1, and it is considered a rather regular weekly update, which means it doesn’t come with any breaking changes from the previous releases.

First and foremost, this new update introduces Kiosk mode for an automatic browser support when idle, as well as support for the Storage Access API. In other words, Microsoft is thus completing the release of the Storage Access API, as the software giant previously pushed this feature to devices as part of a controlled rollout.

There’s also a new change borrowed from Chromium which Microsoft says will force websites to specify the SameSite=None attribute whenever they want to use third-party cookies.

There are also lots of fixes and improvements, and some of them concern crashes that occurred on specific platforms. For example, on Mac there was an issue that caused browser sign-in and sync to sometimes fail, and Microsoft says that it’s all corrected now.

There are also bug fixes for crashes occurring when submitting feedback or when printing, and Microsoft explains that the app should no longer close when opening the settings screen in a guest window.

On the other hand, it’s very important to know that the new update also comes with a bunch of known issues, including for those on macOS. One of them concerns the recently announced Big Sur update, which is currently in preview, with an estimated release date in the fall of this year.

Microsoft says that for these users, Microsoft Edge browser hits all kinds of odd problems, including crashes but sometimes not even launching.

“Mac users running the OS 11 preview (Big Sur) may have issues with all versions of Edge either crashing or not launching to begin with.  We’ve identified the issue and are working to get it resolved before Big Sur is officially released,” the company explains.

There are also problems that have been there for several updates already and which Microsoft is still working on fixing. For example, there’s one issue that affects users running Kaspersky Internet Security, the security product that’s supposed to block malware and other threats on Windows computers. Microsoft says that due to an incompatibility bug, some websites might just fail to load, and these include Gmail. The easiest way to deal with the whole thing is to just update Kaspersky’s software, as the bug happens on outdated versions of the application.

Then, there’s a long-time problem that affects favorites, which in some cases end up being duplicated.

“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,” Microsoft says.

You can try out today’s new Edge build on all supported platforms, but on the other hand, keep in mind this is still in the Dev channel, so other bugs not mentioned here are still possible.

The full changelog is embedded below.

Dev Channel Update To 86.0.601.1