Edge with Chromium to get valuable new privacy and productivity features

By Zac Bowden
published

New features for the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge are coming soon. Here's a first look.

Microsoft today unveiled new changes that are coming soon to the Chromium version of its Edge browser. The new features include a new Internet Explorer (IE) mode for enterprises looking to access old-school websites that still depend on IE, enhanced privacy features, and a new collections feature. IE mode will allow users to run the old web renderer in a tab, allowing web-pages designed for IE to run without issue in the new Edge.

New privacy-focused features allow users to control how much data is sent back to Microsoft, as well as control how much data third parties receive when browsing the internet. There are three levels of privacy: unrestricted, balanced, and strict. Unrestricted will allow websites and Microsoft to collect data as normal, but restricted will make it so very little data is tracked as you browse with Microsoft Edge.

Finally, there's a new Collections feature that lets users organize and share specific webpages and content, with Office integration too. This is a spiritual successor to the set-tabs-aside feature, which let you store tabs for access at a later date. Microsoft also says developers who have built websites or extensions for Chrome should receive total support with the new Microsoft Edge, which makes sense considering the new Edge is based on the same technology found In Chrome.

The Microsoft blog post mentions the following:

  • Internet Explorer mode – Internet Explorer mode integrates Internet Explorer directly into the new Microsoft Edge via a new tab. This allows businesses to run legacy Internet Explorer-based apps in a modern browser.
  • Privacy Tools – additional privacy controls which allow customers to choose from 3 levels of privacy in Microsoft Edge – Unrestricted, Balanced and Strict. Depending on which option you pick, Microsoft Edge adjusts how third parties can track you across the web giving customers more choice and transparency for a more personalized experience.
  • Collections – addressing the information overload customers feel with the web today, Collections allows you to collect, organize, share and export content more efficiently and with Office integration.

These new features were announced at Build 2019, and you can grab the new Edge in preview right now, with the full release expected sometime later this year.

Zac Bowden
Zac Bowden
Senior Editor

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.

7 Comments
  • This is good. Just a shame that progress was slower on the EdgeHTML browser. With the current unique and the planned features, it may look like this will gain more users and eat into the Chrome user base.
  • Agree, I never really noticed until they came out with the chromium base... 🙁
  • Collections looks like an improvement over Set Tabs Aside. Sounds like they're moving in a good direction.
  • +1 felt like a huge leap past their previous progress, faster here than the entire life of edge
  • The mere addition that collections adds citations automatically is a God send as it would make referring to external content much easier for assignments and anyone doing their thesis.
  • > This is a spiritual successor to the set-tabs-aside feature, which let you store tabs for access at a later date. Are you implying that Set Tabs Aside will not be implemented in the new Edge? If so, will we be able to continue using the original Edge indefinitely? Or will they forcibly remove the original Edge in a future OS-level update?
  • Instead of an IE mode, make Edge recognize these legacy services and render them properly. The less you make a user think about what they need to do next the better. Will the new Edge be able to use IE only features in SharePoint? It's annoying that I still have to use IE for several features in SharePoint despite Windows 10 and Edge having been out for a while now. There have been 2 major SharePoint releases since then as well. There's not excuse at this point.