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Microsoft The Internet Windows

Microsoft Details Its Migration Plans for the New Microsoft Edge (thurrott.com) 57

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Microsoft quietly released some new documentation recently, detailing how the company plans to launch its new Chrome-based Microsoft Edge browser. From a report: The company has been working on this new browser for a little while, and we are less than a month away from the public release. [...] The changes here are pretty obvious, but it is still important to understand exactly how Microsoft is going to replace the older Edge browser on a technical level. Microsoft says it has already made changes to Windows 10 and the older Edge browser to support the migration.

All start menu pins, tiles, and shortcuts for the current version of Microsoft Edge will migrate to the next version of Microsoft Edge.
All taskbar pins and shortcuts for the current version of Microsoft Edge will migrate to the next version of Microsoft Edge.
The next version of Microsoft Edge will be pinned to the taskbar. If the current version of Microsoft Edge is already pinned, it will be replaced.
The next version of Microsoft Edge will add a shortcut to the desktop. If the current version of Microsoft Edge already has a shortcut, it will be replaced.
Most protocols that Microsoft Edge handles by default will be migrated to the next version of Microsoft Edge.
Current Microsoft Edge will be hidden from all UX surfaces in the OS, including settings, all apps, and any file or protocol support dialogs.
All attempts to launch the current version of Microsoft Edge will redirect to the next version of Microsoft Edge.
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Microsoft Details Its Migration Plans for the New Microsoft Edge More

Microsoft Details Its Migration Plans for the New Microsoft Edge

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  • Lemme guess... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @10:31AM (#59528536)

    Edge will be Chrome with Microsoft Branding and some stupid aggregation portal for a homepage that constantly resets itself away from google

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      You could get it yourself and see, or if you're a Linux user and it's not available yet, look at other impressions, but who are we kidding? This is Slashdot so everything Microsoft does is bad and wrong!11

      • Re:Lemme guess... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @11:04AM (#59528668)

        I could let 30 years experience with Microsoft products shape my expectations, you know, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it", or as you say, I could just act like yet another easily swayed fool and "hope" that MS has changed their ways... *whew* that's a funny one!

        • I gotta agree with this.

          I started with DOS and when Windows 3.0 hit I took a look. It had the annoying "refresh the folder," anytime we navigated around using File Manage. I chunked it.

          That experience was a precursor to the experience shape we're both familiar with -- Microsoft crowdsources its beta.

          Every. Fucking. Time.

          CaptainDork's 13th Corollary: "Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it while those of us who do are bound to predict it."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

        Um, not quite. This is Earth, and everything Microsoft does is to preserve its dominance. It's doing it more nicely these days, since people are rightly wary of them, but the only point of having a Microsoft-branded version of Chromium is to 'cut off the air supply' to Google.

        Okay, well you could say that any desktop OS these days needs to come with a browser - and a Chromium one supplies Microsoft with a nice standards-compliant one for very little effort. But then, why bring it to Android, MacOS, Linux

        • To be fair, the world was populated with terribly proprietary computing systems before MicroSoft enabled IBM's PC

          There is no telling if we would even have Linux as an option if MS had not dominated the commodity OS market, then pissed off their technical users with bits of sparkle and fluff tacked over their greediest notions

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

            Right. That's why I give them begrudging credit for cheap commodity PC's - and by extension, Linux. But everything after that... Plus, killing WordPerfect, etc by way of monopoly bundling deals was kinda mean...

          • The key player back then was *IBM* with their PC being build exclusively out of cheap of-the-shelf parts (because IBM were very late at the show, and needed to rush something as soon as possible into production), thus enabling 3rd-party to make cheap clones by taking the same cheap parts out of the same metaphorical shelf.
            That's why we had a flood of PC-compatible.

            Microsoft was only accidentally at the periphery of that, being the lucky one providing the OS.
            If it wasn't for Bill Gates, it would probably hav

  • Yet another re-grabbing of all file extensions? I already deal with this on a constant random basis. Do not want.

    • Maybe they will bring Clippy back

      • Maybe they will bring Clippy back

        When that goddam thing hit, I offered to remove it for my users (paralegals at a law firm) because I found it annoying.

        They, however, found it to be cute -- kinda like Siri -- so I left it alone.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Hasaf ( 3744357 )

          Maybe they will bring Clippy back

          When that goddam thing hit, I offered to remove it for my users (paralegals at a law firm) because I found it annoying.

          They, however, found it to be cute -- kinda like Siri -- so I left it alone.

          Sounds like you needed an office dog for people to scratch when they needed a perk-up.

    • I agree.

      Actually the thought of having the old Edge tucked away somewhere despite a newer version being installed... alongside: "All attempts to launch the current version of Microsoft Edge will redirect to the next version of Microsoft Edge." very much makes me feel dirty.

      I guess I can assume the old Edge probably has to live on the machine for a while, probably some software links against it or something... but... I dunno. I just use Firefox anyways, I'm not planning on installing the new Edge (or any ot

      • I agree.

        Actually the thought of having the old Edge tucked away somewhere despite a newer version being installed... alongside: "All attempts to launch the current version of Microsoft Edge will redirect to the next version of Microsoft Edge." very much makes me feel dirty.

        I guess I can assume the old Edge probably has to live on the machine for a while, probably some software links against it or something... but... I dunno. I just use Firefox anyways, I'm not planning on installing the new Edge (or any other browser for that matter), but I probably won't have a choice.

        It really pisses me off when, on rare occasions, a primitive task launches Edge. That goddam beast does not respond to my steely knives.

    • I'm doing the training at work for our transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I have one slide on Microsoft Edge. All it says is "Do not use Microsoft Edge". I've also created videos for our users showing them how to change their default web browser and also their default PDF viewer. Whenever I do a remote support session, if i see Edge in their taskbar, I unpin it, along with the abominable Windows Mail as well.

      • I'm doing the training at work for our transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I have one slide on Microsoft Edge. All it says is "Do not use Microsoft Edge". I've also created videos for our users showing them how to change their default web browser and also their default PDF viewer. Whenever I do a remote support session, if i see Edge in their taskbar, I unpin it, along with the abominable Windows Mail as well.

        I retrained my users to accept Firefox years ago, weening them off IE.

        New hires would be a tad upset, but coworkers were always nice about orienting each other.

        When Edge hit, requests were unanimous to please hide it.

  • The next version of Microsoft Edge will be pinned to the taskbar.

    I sincerely hope this can be un-pinned, especially as I don't, and never will, use Edge.

    Most protocols that Microsoft Edge handles by default will be migrated to the next version of Microsoft Edge.

    Will I have to reset Firefox as my default browser and the associated extensions?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      I would be rather surprised if you couldn't unpin Edge from the taskbar. I haven't seen anything in Windows yet that cannot be removed from the taskbar.

    • "Will I have to reset Firefox as my default browser and the associated extensions?"

      Do you really need to ask?

    • I use Edge if I'm on a WIn10 box and don't want Chrome for some reason, but that's pretty rare.

  • GPO's? (Score:2)

    by pmsr ( 560617 )

    Missing is information on GPO's. Which will apply? Chrome/Chromium's? Or will they stay the same as for Edge? Perhaps new ones?

  • Windows 10 will now come with three different browsers and since most people download a non MS browser that brings the total up to four plus browsers taking up space. Since many cheap devices come with less than 32GB storage that is going to put pressure on the remaining space. Internet Explorer is to blame for this mess, companies need to keep it around because of their “enterprise” java ActiveX bloatware.

    • Re:Triple browser trouble (Score:4)

      by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:10PM (#59529180)
      Microsoft's positioning WIndows 10 X for those kinds of devices, though whether that'll take off is anyone's guess. That won't even have Win32 compatibility, so I'm sure IE won't even be installed.

      Considering they're disabling pretty much every possible hook into classic Edge, my guess is they'll probably remove it entirely at some point down the line for all installs. Maybe 20H2?

      IE can't be uninstalled by any normal methods (you can probably uninstall it using whatever nLite clones are popular these days), but it can be disabled in the Windows Features menu. I suspect that some future release may make this into an uninstall rather than a disable, but that's just speculation.

  • IE? (Score:2)

    by jamienk ( 62492 )

    I thought one of the benefits of this was to rid the world of IE? Edge wasn't compatible with pre-Windows 10. But now the new Google Edge is right? So shouldn't IE users get the upgrade? That seems to be the most important thing here, from the standpoint of the health of the web.

    • Wow, this is gonna be fun watching MICROSOFT trying to run "embrace, extend, extinguish" [wikipedia.org] on GOOGLE.
      Particularly with Microsoft being the underdog in this situation.
    • They're still keeping IE around because a good number of business websites and random programs still rely on it. They already hid it several releases ago so most normal users won't accidentally go into it unless they search for it.

      On systems without classic Edge that are not EOL as of right now (e.g. Win7), I believe they'll be deploying new Edge through Windows Update (in WIn7's case, I believe it'll be the last update the OS gets that isn't paid). I don't know how that'll look on Windows 7 and if it'll

      • They're still keeping IE around because a good number of business websites and random programs still rely on it.

        Beaucoup government sites rely on IE as well. You wont be rid of IE for another 5+ years. There are simply too many intranets... local all the way up to federal... that rely on IE.

  • Why would I want new shortcuts to the new Edge?
    Isn't there an antitrust case related to forcing their browser down our throat?

  • Yeah I heard the news from other source, it will be intresting to see how Edge and microsoft actually figures it out. Translation agency [slashdot.org]
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      Figure out how much you or your company would be willing to spend on a ransom demand to get all your stuff back. And then use that money for backups, security and training.

      Wrong MS bashing article. You're looking for the last one: https://it.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org]

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @11:17AM (#59528714)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • That's really my only question: Can I unpin it and remove it from the desktop?

    I don't use IE or the old Edge, I'm not using the new one. I'm not going to go out of my way to delete/uninstall them because apparently Windows often breaks without them; but I don't need any shortcuts or pins or anything. It isn't as if I'm ever going to willingly use it. The occasional time that Windows directly triggers it for some help thing or another is more than often enough.

    At the end of the day, the only purpose for Edge

    • That's not even the worst part - the summary indicates Microsoft won't even allow you to run an older version of the program.

    • Re:Can I unpin & remove from desktop? (Score:4)

      by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:20PM (#59529224)
      I'm sure you can unpin it at least. As for whether it'll stay that way, that's another question. Windows 10 seems to like to re-enable things you've turned off.

    • That's really my only question: Can I unpin it and remove it from the desktop?

      I don't use IE or the old Edge, I'm not using the new one. I'm not going to go out of my way to delete/uninstall them because apparently Windows often breaks without them; but I don't need any shortcuts or pins or anything. It isn't as if I'm ever going to willingly use it. The occasional time that Windows directly triggers it for some help thing or another is more than often enough.

      At the end of the day, the only purpose for Edge (like IE before it) is to facilitate the downloading of the browser of *your* choice.

      TFS only says the IF Edge is pinned now, it will be pinned in the future. That way, the Gentle User doesn't have to fire up a separate browser to search for, "how to pin Edge to taskbar"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zitchas ( 713512 )

        Actually, that's not entirely accurate. While the article *does* say that "if edge is pinned now, it will replace that pin," but the more complete statement is: "The next version of Microsoft Edge will be pinned to the taskbar. If the current version of Microsoft Edge is already pinned, it will be replaced."

        That's pretty bluntly stating that the new edge *will* be pinned to the taskbar, no ifs ands or buts about it. It'll just be courteous enough to ensure it isn't duplicating an edge shortcut if one happen

  • It is just Chrome but for the Microsoft data collector. Will this "re-enable" all the crap that I have disabled, such as the current edge running as a background process from system boot and always accepting unsolicited incoming connections? I already had to write custom software to ensure that "Microsoft Fucking About" continually with settings that I set get reset to the way I set them (example, the Windows Firewall, which on average seems to need resetting every 9 hours to disallow incoming unsolicited

  • "All attempts to launch the current version of Microsoft Edge will redirect to the next version of Microsoft Edge."

    Hang on. If I want to run an executable, it's because I want to run that executable. Not because I want to run the executable you would prefer me to run. Is this a simple "They are replacing the existing Edge executable with a stub that performs the redirect", or is it something more hideous within the OS?

  • Edge on Windows Server (Score:3)

    by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @12:57PM (#59529138) Homepage

    And they still don't say if this will be installed on Windows Server or not. This is a huge issue.

    Windows Server edition it comes with IE11 but not Edge. This is annoying when you use a web-based management software for some application on the server. Naturally, everyone installs Chrome which is a bit of a security hole because now you have a 3rd-party unsupported application on your server that has a completely different patch source and schedule and doesn't respect the OS group policy settings. Microsoft needs to get the new Edge-Chrome on Windows Server.

    • The new Edge is not just Windows 10, as far as the developer builds go at:
      https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/download?form=MI13E8&OCID=MI13E8 [microsoftedgeinsider.com]

      There's builds on there for Windows Server. Though of course, the real puzzler is they have builds for Windows 7! Why Microsoft went to the trouble to support the new Edge on a version of Windows that's right at it's EOL is a real mystery.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sad_ ( 7868 )

      installing browsers on servers, oh my...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

        I usually trust "https://localhost"
        FYI: Despite the name, the "Server" edition of Windows is used for more than just servers. Anything LTSB is based on Windows Server, so that includes their embedded and IoT products. It is odd that when you tell Microsoft "I need an OS for a cheap device that is primarily going to act as a Kiosk" they recommend a Server edition of Windows, which has no browser on it.

  • They need to nuke IE. Why the hell is internet explorer still around?

    • Because it is so deeply entrenched in certain places. There are still state programs in Wisconsin (for example) that will not run on anything newer than IE9.
  • Two whole articles on MICROS~1 Chrome :]
  • Why do the latest edge chrome and real chrome get such different css3test scores? Wtf is MS doing?

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