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Chromium Microsoft

Microsoft Updates Edge With New Features To Challenge Chrome (forbes.com) 57

Forbes looks at new features Microsoft added to Edge "as it looks to beat Chrome in the browser wars." It's now going to be possible to search for work files directly inside the Edge browser directly from the address bar. To use this you need Microsoft Search configured, then type "work" and press the Tab key to search your company's network for your work files. Another work-related Microsoft Edge update is also about to launch to let IT admins manage specific work related apps on user devices as well as the browsing users do from their Work Profile in Edge.

Integration with other Microsoft products is a key factor as the IT giant looks to entice more business users to use the updated Edge browser. Edge now supports native policies for Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, which are used to find and protect sensitive items across Microsoft 365 services, Microsoft said in a blog highlighting the firm's security credentials. Another soon to launch feature of note highlighted by Bleeping Computer is Sleeping Tabs, which Microsoft says can improve memory usage by up to 26%. It can also reduce CPU usage by 29% potentially resulting in battery savings...

The browser is also adding security features such as alerts for the Edge password monitor if a compromised password is detected.

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Microsoft Updates Edge With New Features To Challenge Chrome

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  • Just to Funny (Score:5, Insightful)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @05:57PM (#60546750)
    New Features To Challenge Chrome

    Pretty hard to beat the completion when your using their frame, engine, drive train, etc, etc and just painting things a different color!

    But then Microsoft has always struggled if they don't have a monopoly.
    • Re:Just to Funny (Score:5, Insightful)

      by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @06:02PM (#60546758)
      I would settle for a version that didn’t install itself as a critical update
      • by Revek ( 133289 )
        It makes itself full screen as well. Its standard in your face microsoft crap. I goes well with update 2004 that includes that handy little lets try to force you to convert you to a microsoft account notification. I had eleven kiosk that cratered due to that and the fact that they removed the ability to login automatically from netwiz.cpl. I found a work around but overall microsoft is up to its annoying tricks and thankfully I only have to deal with it at work.
        • When it shows up (e.g. wiping/updating laptops at work), I just terminate the process. Doesn't seem to come back after that (installed, of course, but the obnoxious full screen introduction didn't seem persistent). Doesn't make it not incredibly intrusive... it's like they don't understand that people have work to do.
      • I would settle for a version that didn’t install itself as a critical update

        You're missing the big picture. The new Edge as a critical update replacing the old Edge. Is it a turd? Yeah, but it's just a steaming turd, replacing and removing the previous turd which looked like the result of a full week of eating only burritos.

        A user accidentally opening Edge now is simply inclined to close it, not gouge their own eyeballs out.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • A more pointless browser I have yet to encounter. Even the shills have a hard time making Chromium Edge look like more than an unnecessary clone. I am so glad Microsoft's days of dominance are dying. Now we just need to figure out what to do with Google.

      • A more pointless browser I have yet to encounter. Even the shills have a hard time making Chromium Edge look like more than an unnecessary clone. I am so glad Microsoft's days of dominance are dying.

        Edge has a point: reducing the number of data-collection empires you're in bed with from two to one. It's Chrome itself on Windows that is pointless.

        Also, there's no sign of dominance decreasing.

        Now we just need to figure out what to do with Google.

        We could... stop using their browser and use Edge instead? Just a thought.

        • I won't use any browser Microsoft develops. Fuck 'em. I'd rather feed Google my info than ever help MS, and since most of my casual browsing isn't in Windows, I have no reason to use their Chrome ripoff. But it is fun to watch the moronic defenses of a major IT company so fucking pathetic that it can't even make its own browser engine a success and basically has to sponge off of Google. Microsoft has really become a pointless worthless entity of no use and no note.

        • How about not using Windows or Chrome? What an astounding concept, eh?

          • How about not using Windows or Chrome? What an astounding concept, eh?

            Well, given the huge library of industry-specific software that requires Windows, it's also a glib concept. From tool & mold machine control software to truck tracking software to customer/case logging software, many, many companies just don't have a choice. The best software for them are all Windows-based.

      • Working in telecom I always have to hear the asshats talk up microsuck every time they try to get into the phone business yet again theyve tried what, 12 times now? Yet every time they try again these same cock govblers are just convinced they are going to corner the market.

        How many times has the windows phone failed? First it was CE. That failed. Then they tried to resurrect it. They bough nokia thinking they could force the windows phone onto brand loyalists. Failed. Typically they sell like 200,000 phon

        • microsuck -- so very edgy bro. You could improve it with micro$uck... Go all-in on the OS wars from two decades ago!
          • by troff ( 529250 )

            ... you actually think those wars ever ended?

          • Ah, back in the day...

            https://web.archive.org/web/20030623113436/http://www.microsfot.com/

            https://web.archive.org/web/20010401064401/http://win2000sucks.com/
    • To funny? What does that mean?

    • It seems you forgot how Chrome started: in 2013 Google forked WebCore (WebKit), added a skin, and called it Chrome...

    • etc and just painting things a different color!

      If that's all you think Edge offers then that's on your lack of understanding. I mean the very summary you didn't read says precisely the opposite. Hell Edge isn't even a different colour.

      Chrome and Edge may have a shared underlying engine, but they are different in many ways:

      - Chrome syncs with Google - Yay home users.
      - Edge syncs with your Microsoft Account - Yay corporate users and the occasional home user who actually uses this to log into windows.
      - Chrome fails to work with many corporate systems
      - Edge

  • "IT giant looks to entice more business users"
  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @06:06PM (#60546766)

    It's now going to be possible to search for work files directly inside the Edge browser directly from the address bar.

    Imagine you're working in a hospital and you work with patient records. You go to search for a patient's file and that information goes all the way back to Microsoft. Now imagine there's a zero day exploit someone is using to hoover up data. Imagine it's your data someone steals. All your personal information now spread across the electronic tubes.

    It's almost as if security doesn't enter into the equation. Then again, with this incessant need to search for everything instead of going right to the source, should we expect any less when laziness abounds?

    • I would assume that if you do as it says and type work followed by the tab key, it uses the same Microsoft Search index that would be used for any local search, and not send the query off to Redmond.
    • Imagine if Russians are attacking! Imagine aliens hitting.

      Or simply realise that corporate computers which actually handle critical information do not report back to the borg, and even when they do realise that most of Microsoft's services including their cloud services are actually HIPAA compliant, and that despite their gigantic security profile as a manager of both government and classified corporate documents in their cloud service and their inability to secure their own source code, we've yet to see a

  • Can you stop auto-playing videos and animations?
    • by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @07:02PM (#60546852)

      We shouldn't be asking to stop auto-playing videos, we should be asking that they don't even load in the first place. It's wasting bandwidth on both ends, wasting time and energy for something nobody asked for.

      Hell, sometimes I try to read an article on some website and a freakin' auto-playing video on another completely different topic starts playing somewhere else on the page. Not only is it extremely distracting, but now I have to hunt the damn video, hope it has playback controls and stop the playback since I'm trying to listen to music at the same time.

      The worst part is, I'm still using an old system from 2010 and the CPU doesn't even have time to finish rendering the damn page when the video starts playing, so I have to do all that while the computer is struggling to compute everything.

    • Damn near impossible even with html5 blockers. Seems like a trivial thing to block but nobody can.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday September 27, 2020 @12:07AM (#60547136)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • "Edge now supports native policies for Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention" right1

    I did not know this was "Release meaningless new features for browsers day"
    • Its a hook to get corporate users with regulatory requirements to only use Edge. You can integrate it into other related policies that you already have. Its how to get the IT Security guys to decide that the company can only use Edge because they can prevent (or at least monitor the use of) Edge from using things like Google Drive (for exfiltration for example).

    • I did not know this was "Release meaningless new features for browsers day"

      Judging from some of the "features" in *all* the browsers, when is it not?

  • by Flexagon ( 740643 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @06:20PM (#60546790)
    I remember being able to type a URL into Windows File Explorer in, what was it, Windows 95, and the totally integrated Internet Explorer rendered the page therein. In fact, it was such tight integration of IE that got Microsoft into trouble at the time. What goes around, comes around.
    • Yea microsoft was bad about those features that led to remote exploits. Like who at MS thought it was a great idea to let NOTEPAD execute embedded code in a text file?? No wonder they hated linux so much, it constantly exposed them for being security morons. DirectX. Great fucking idea. Lets give a foreign website complete access to your hardware. Nothing possibly bad could come from that. Nobody would ever do anything malicious on the Internet. its the epitome of benevolence.

      • by clovis ( 4684 )

        Yea microsoft was bad about those features that led to remote exploits. Like who at MS thought it was a great idea to let NOTEPAD execute embedded code in a text file?? No wonder they hated linux so much, it constantly exposed them for being security morons. DirectX. Great fucking idea. Lets give a foreign website complete access to your hardware. Nothing possibly bad could come from that. Nobody would ever do anything malicious on the Internet. its the epitome of benevolence.

        Can you provide an example of notepad executing embedded code in a text file?
        The only thing I know that notepad can do as a command in a text file is the ".LOG" command.

        • Its been a really long time since they patched it. It was during the windows 7/8 days. It wasnt a bug, it had been there since the early 90s as a feature. There was a /. Discussion on it too. However every google search filled pages of just the last 2 years. This was like around 2012. Still looking but MS doesnt have a changelog for each app, otherwise it would be pretty easy to find.

          • by clovis ( 4684 )

            Its been a really long time since they patched it. It was during the windows 7/8 days. It wasnt a bug, it had been there since the early 90s as a feature. There was a /. Discussion on it too. However every google search filled pages of just the last 2 years. This was like around 2012. Still looking but MS doesnt have a changelog for each app, otherwise it would be pretty easy to find.

            Rats. I was really hoping to have some fun with that.
            It seems like every search engine has been de-featured so that it only wants to give you advertisements for recent products. I gave up on going back in time.

      • DirectX. Great fucking idea. Lets give a foreign website complete access to your hardware. Nothing possibly bad could come from that.

        ITYM ActiveX there? You don't get to DirectX through a website except maybe through Silverlight. But the main idea behind DirectX was to EEE gaming. Microsoft could see that providing the APIs for game developers would make them reliant on Microsoft. After 3dfx made GLIDE instead of MiniGL, it opened the door for other competing 3d APIs, so Microsoft made Direct3D even though they had their own software OpenGL implementation, and the rest is history — and a shit show. OpenGL has its deficits, but the

  • Doesn't matter what features MS adds. MS browsers generally have a well-deserved bad rep. Even if they're actually based on Chromium.

    I can't even remember the one between IE and Edge. Never used any of them myself,

  • On Windows you used to be able to press Windows-F to search for files on your computer, network, etc.. Since Windows 10 came along pressing Windows-F now just gets you a Windows Feedback complaint form.
  • by HalAtWork ( 926717 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @07:59PM (#60546908)

    "It's now going to be possible to search for work files directly inside the Edge browser directly from the address bar. "

    Why is this a browser feature, shouldn't it be a file manager feature?

    • by MS ( 18681 )

      I fully agree.
      Now I also understand, why they crippled the search-function in Windows Explorer: with indexing off, I'm unable to find anything - with indexing on, the pc is permanently slow as hell.

  • embrace, extend, extinguish.

    Microsoft taught Russia and China a lot.
  • Geez... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @08:46PM (#60546952) Homepage
    ...You'd think that at SOME point Microsoft would learn from all their past mistakes about why it is a bad idea to mix local and remote content and security zones within their browsers, OS and gadgets. Remember IE getting integrated into windows, and all the headaches that came along with that? Remember Gadgets, discontinued because they were a security nightmare?

    But don't worry, this time it'll be different, they pinky-swear.
  • Thanks for sharing the information regarding it [lyricsauto.com]
  • Main new feature is about adding Edge icon on windows task bar again?

  • Their search monster was always good at searching, but not at finding. Now combine one shit with another shit and you expect to get a cheesecake? Why spend energy on stuff nobody asked for? MS never knows what their users want and always gets the same surprise. Everyone else just standing around with eyes full of pity.
  • 1. Goto about:config or about:flags, or whats needed depending on you browser, to get into the hidden settings.
    2. Search for url and replace all urls with localhost or local ip.
    3. As above for http.
    4. Make sure non of the other programs than the browser in or at deeper levels of the install folder has access to the network. Block them in your firewall.
    5. In some cases a rename of the other program files is needed.
    6. Disable all references for browser in task scheduler.
    7. Download and install the hosts file

  • No point challenging Chrome. Edge is already using the Chromium engine. Better to share its resources with chromium so that both Edge and Chrome can benefit.
  • by bb_matt ( 5705262 ) on Sunday September 27, 2020 @10:42AM (#60547978)

    This is just so typical of microsoft - why on earth would you want to search for work files in a Web Browser?
    The Web Browser is for use ... on the web, not to browse local assets or, worse still, network drives.

    Sure, I get it, heading toward a seamless experience of search - but it's been done before, it's already built into operating systems and it really doesn't work that well.
    There's no very needed separation of concerns.
    For a web browser to bring results back of your *work* files, means a confusion about what that software is actually for - it blurs the lines between *your* stuff and the web - it may be handy, but it's a security nightmare just waiting to happen.

    I can use a table knife to loosen the screws in a socket, but that table knife is best used when eating. A better option is to use a tool more suited for the job.

    That's the analogy we're looking at here - just bolting on pointless features for the sake of it - "Oh, wouldn't it be cool if we could do XYZ?"
    No, no it wouldn't. It's a damn web browser FFS.

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