On the 4th of March 2021 Microsoft released the latest stable version of the Microsoft edge web browser version 89. So that means we have gone from version 88 to 89 in this latest release and this also follows on from Google chrome being updated to version 89 earlier this week because both edge and chrome are based on the chromium web browser.
Now as always if you’d like to see if you have the update just go to the top right hand corner of the browser >> click on the three dotted menu >> go down to help and feedback >> about Microsoft edge and if it hasn’t done so already in the background this will update you to the latest version of Microsoft edge and the latest version is 89.0.774.45.
Now let’s see what are the new feature updates.
1. Download edge over Metered connections
The first feature is you can now download edge over Metered connections and for example if you are running a cellular network and you toggle this on you can now have updates to edge over a metered connection this is obviously off by default for obvious reasons.
2. Sleeping tabs
Now the next feature we will look at is called sleeping tabs and if we go to the left to system you will see that there is a new save resources section and you can now save resources with sleeping tabs this save resources was actually added to my Microsoft edge last month in version 88 and Microsoft didn’t make it widely available to all users of Microsoft edge last month but now with version 89 they are pushing this out to most users of Microsoft edge.
So what this does is when this is on inactive tabs will go to sleep after a specified time to save system resources so if you are somebody who has a lot of tabs open and like to browse with a lot of tabs open this is a handy feature and this is on by default because the more tabs you have open obviously the more processors and resources are running in the background which then could lead to your browsing experience becoming a lot more sluggish and slower and especially if you are using a laptop on battery power the more tabs you have open could drain your battery a lot faster so this is a very handy feature especially if you are running a laptop on battery power and you can see you can put in active tabs to sleep after the specified amount of time it is on two hours of inactivity by default but you have the choice to go from 5 minutes right three to 6 hours.
if there is a certain website you are using regularly you can choose not never put these sites to sleep and then you just go add and you can add the URL of that website if you are using a website regularly and don’t want it to be put to sleep you can add it here and that is also handy now in conjunction with save resources Microsoft has also enabled support for intensive throttling a feature created by Google engineers for chromium this feature is supposed to reduce resources usage by prioritizing your inactive tabs over the others in the background and it could also extend the battery life so Microsoft looking like they are really trying to concentrate on the performance side of things with this release of Microsoft edge.
3. Startup boost
Now the next feature we’re going to look at is called startup boost and if we stay in system and we go to the top you’ll see here startup boost now this is off by default and what this does it says here the browser will launch in the background when you sign into your device and continue running when you close all browser windows so what this does is if you shut down your pc today and then you power it up again tomorrow what this does is when you toggle this on it’ll load processors of Microsoft edge when your computer starts and thereby when you want to open Microsoft edge it will load a lot faster and i have read that Microsoft claims this will start Microsoft edge 41% faster when you have got starter boost turned on.
now you will see here that it says and continue running when you’re you close all browser windows so if you close Microsoft edge and you’re still on your active session on your computer and then you restart it Microsoft says that the browser with startup boost enabled your browser will start 41% faster now my only problem with startup boost is when you close edge there are still processors running in the background now I don’t use Microsoft edge as my main web browser I use Google chrome so I don’t want processors running in the background when I’m not using Microsoft edge because the more processors running in the background the more sluggish and slower your computer can become and especially if you are using an older machine if you are using a more modern machine there’s nothing to worry about so what I do is I leave that feature turned off as I say because I don’t use Microsoft edge as my main web browser.
4. Vertical tabs layout
The Next Feature we are going to take a look at is vertical tabs layout and if you go to the left hand corner of your Microsoft edge web browser you will see that there is a new turn on vertical tabs icon and what this does is it drops your tabs at the top down to a vertical pane on the left of your Microsoft edge web browser and if you open up some tabs and if you hover over it will increase the size and then obviously go back to normal and you can pop that back and then you can put it back.
5. The History Section
Another new feature is if we go to the three dotted menu and we click on history you will see now that your browsing history is now in a drop down window as opposed to the old new tab page and if you want the old look you just click on the three dotted you go manage history and that will be your old history profile there but i think that this is a nice new modern feature just for quick access if you are accessing your history frequently and then what you can do is you can also open it just like the drop down menu for the vertical tabs layout for the new tabs you can pin your history to the side as well if you so wish but I see there is no option to resize it as yet so that is a handy new feature also added to Microsoft edge and then Microsoft is also improving text selection in PDF documents and opened in edge to reduce issues in certain documents.
6. Customize scaling while printing web pages
another feature is the ability to customize scaling while printing web pages and PDF documents and the scaling options include 50 page paper size and actual size the third option would ensure that the size of the document remains unaffected and quality of the original document will be retained so Microsoft has improved and the PDF and printing side of things in Microsoft edge.
