Microsoft Edge is finally a polished browser in Windows 10 version 1803

Microsoft Finally Released Windows 10 April 2018 Update (On 30 April 2018 ) For everyone with several new features such as Timeline, Focus Assist near share and more. And This update v1803 also brings several new features to the Microsoft Edge web browser. With the latest updates, Edge Browser seems to have finished and polished all the remaining corners that were left around. This time the browser really seems solid and powerful enough. Just wanted to congratulate the team on this achievement. Here this post we have collected Edge browser Changes and improvements on Windows 10 Version 1803.

Microsoft in its official blog informs its users,

“You can get your hands on the April 2018 Update today by checking for updates on your Windows 10 device, or, if you don’t have one, by downloading a free virtual machine from the Microsoft Edge Developer Site. You can also test Microsoft Edge for free in BrowserStack, which offers instant cloud-based manual and automated testing from a Mac or PC. BrowserStack will be updated to include the final release of EdgeHTML 17 in the coming weeks.”

New features in Microsoft Edge

Let us now have a look at the new features that Microsoft Edge update offers:

Microsoft states,

“In every release, it’s our goal to make the web sing on Windows by making Microsoft Edge the fastest, easiest, and most productive place for you to enjoy your favorite sites and web apps.”

Mute tabs with a click

As per the feedback from the users, in the April 2018 Update, it is now possible to mute individual tabs. If you go on to hear any unwanted audio playing in the browser, All you have to do is click on the speaker icon of the corresponding tab.

Microsoft states,

“Our goal is to put users in control of autoplay content on the Web, so we’re continuing to explore more features to intelligently restrict autoplay audio and video content in future releases.”

Clutter-free printing

When printing a web page, you will now be able to save paper easily, all you need to do is only printing the content that you require. Select the “Clutter-free printing” option to print web pages without pop-ups and other unnecessary clutter.

For example, if you want to print a recipe, Microsoft Edge knows which parts of the page are needed and which are not. To this white, you print out only the things of a website that you really need.

Automatically fill forms and credit card details

With the windows 10 version 1803, Microsoft Edge will now go on to remember your name, credit card details and other such information when you sign in to your Microsoft Account. However, Microsoft Edge will do so, only with your permission. And offers to automatically insert it into appropriate forms.

PDF and read view now with fullscreen mode

Microsoft Edge update brings you an all-new experience of reading books, and other documents, whether it is a PDF or EPUB books, documents or web pages in Reading View. Both PDFs and the Reading View can now be used in full-screen mode. This allows you to better focus on the actual text without being distracted. In order to enable full-screen reading, all you need to do is click on the double arrow icon available on the reading bar or simply press F11 on your keyboard.

EPUB books can now be saved, whether by downloading the content from the web or by purchasing it from the Microsoft Store. You will also be able to add bookmarks, and also manage every book that you have saved in your tab in the Microsoft Edge “Hub” menu. Here, you will also be able to find recommendations that are based on your reading lists and habits.

Grammar tools for improved understanding of the text

There is now new Grammar Tools button available in Microsoft Edge that will allow you to enable to display various grammatical building blocks of a text. Including adjectives, verbs or phrases.  These tools work with any text as long as it is compatible with the read view. And The Grammar Tools will now be able to break words on the pages into syllables along with highlight different parts of speech such as Noun, Verbs and Adjectives.

Bigger, better Hub

The Hub is that panel that slides out from the right edge where you can view your favorites, reading list, books, history and downloads. Previously, it was a narrow column where the text ran off the side of your screen. Now, it’s wider and much easier to use. The Hub also adds a “Create new folder” button, which was hidden behind a right-click contextual menu in previous versions. Small but thoughtful improvements make Edge’s Hub bigger and better.

Offline websites and push notifications

Microsoft Edge now goes on to support new web standards that allow web pages to send push notifications to your Action Center, even when the browser is closed. Along with this, you will be glad to know that certain web pages will now be able to work offline and also improve performance, simply by using locally cached data, when the cache is up to date, or when your device has a poor network connection.

Improved support for touchpad gestures

Microsoft Edge now supports custom multi-touch gesture support on devices with a precision touchpad, such as modern Surface laptops. On their supported sites such as  Bing Maps, you will now be able to use pinch-to-zoom and two-finger panning gestures to navigate maps in the similar manner in which you would on the touchscreen.

New features for Extensions

New extensions for Microsoft Edge every day has been added, allowing users to customize their browsing experience with their favorite ad blockers, password managers and many more.

In order to make the experience of finding the extensions easier for the users, Microsoft Edge will now show a dynamic list of suggested extensions under the “Extension” menu.

Intelligently suspends background tabs

Many web pages use resources continuously even when the user is not interacting or when the window is not in the foreground. When a tab is open for long periods of time, especially when lots of tabs are open, this impact adds up to reduced performance and battery life.

To prioritize the user experience, Microsoft Edge now intelligently suspends background tabs after the user has not interacted with them for a while, caching the content and suspending all CPU activity on that tab. This means improved performance and reduced power usage over time, with a minimal impact on the user experience. Tabs are then rapidly rehydrated when the user clicks on them.

For Developers:

• Starting in EdgeHTML 17, Service Workers and push notifications are enabled by default to bring support for Progressive Web Apps.
• Full support for Variable Fonts, including CSS font-variation-settings and font-optical-sizing
• Edge now supports the Notification API which displays notifications from extensions
• EdgeHTML 17 now includes support for roles, states, and properties from the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1 specification
• On devices with a Precision TouchPad (PTP), Microsoft Edge will now fire Pointer Events with a pointerType of “touch” in response to PTP gestures.
• EdgeHTML 17 now supports CSS transforms on SVG elements and presentation attributes.
• The tools have been updated with a number of major features, including basic support for remote debugging (via our new DevTools Protocol), PWA debugging features, IndexedDB cache management, vertical docking and more
• Microsoft Edge now supports Screen Capture in RTC via the Media Capture API
• EdgeHTML 17 introduces support for Subresource Integrity (SRI). Subresource Integrity is a security feature that allows browsers to verify that fetched resources (e.g. images, scripts, fonts, etc.) are delivered without unexpected manipulation.

You can read about these features in detail on Official Microsoft blog. How do you like the new features for the Edge Browser? Do you use it as a standard browser?