Upgrading to the new Microsoft Edge
The new Microsoft Edge is now out of preview and available for download, with today’s release of our first Stable channel build (Microsoft Edge 79 stable). You can download the new Microsoft Edge today at microsoft.com/edge.
In this post, we’ll walk through what you can expect now that the new Edge channel is open – including how the update will roll out, how you can get started testing and what to expect from the preview channels going forward.
The work of upgrading devices to the new Microsoft Edge across hundreds of millions of Windows PCs around the world won’t happen overnight. Our goal is to make this process as simple and non-intrusive as possible to deliver a great experience, while minimizing risk to users and organizations.
Installing the new Microsoft Edge
You can get the new Microsoft Edge for Windows and macOS today by downloading it directly from microsoft.com/edge. When you install Microsoft Edge on an up-to-date Windows 10 device, it will replace the previous (legacy) version on your device. In some cases, you may be prompted to install additional updates. Your favorites, passwords, and basic settings will carry over to the new Microsoft Edge automatically. Web apps (including those built on EdgeHTML), and Microsoft Edge preview channels (such as Dev or Canary) will continue to work without interruption.
If you’re using Microsoft Edge on iOS or Android, you don’t need to take any action – your device will update automatically.
Automatic rollout and update roadmap for consumers
If you’d prefer not to install Microsoft Edge manually, you can wait for it to be installed in a future update to Windows 10, following our measured roll-out approach over the next several months. We will start to migrate Windows 10 customers to the new Microsoft Edge in the coming weeks, starting with a subset of Windows Insiders in the Release Preview ring.
Enterprise and education users will not be automatically upgraded at this time. Contact your administrator for more information on updating to the new Microsoft Edge in your organization. Administrators should refer to the “Enterprise updates and options” section below.
The new Microsoft Edge will gradually be made available on Windows Update and offered to additional devices as data and feedback indicate that users are having a good experience. If you don’t want to wait, you can get the new Microsoft Edge at microsoft.com/edge.
Whether you download today or wait for us to upgrade it on your device, your favorites, passwords, and basic settings will carry over to the new Microsoft Edge automatically. The automatic rollout will maintain your default browser setting – if your default is currently set to a browser other than Microsoft Edge, your setting will carry over once the new Microsoft Edge is installed.
Once you’ve installed Microsoft Edge, it will update independently on a roughly six-week cadence. You can always preview the next major update via the Beta channel—for example, Microsoft Edge 80 will enter the Beta channel soon, and is expected to release to Stable in February. You can learn more about Microsoft Edge preview channels in our previous blog post, What to expect in the new Microsoft Edge Insider channels.
Enterprise updates and options
Organizations are in full control of when the new Microsoft Edge will be deployed to their managed devices. Managed devices will not be automatically updated to the new Microsoft Edge. In addition to managed devices, Enterprise, Education, and Workstation Pro Edition devices will not be automatically updated at this time. Organizations that would like to block the automatic delivery of the new Microsoft Edge to devices on Home and Pro Editions with Windows Update enabled can do so either via policies or by downloading and deploying the Blocker Toolkit. Note that Internet Explorer is not impacted by our automatic rollout.
When you are ready to deploy the new Microsoft Edge, you can learn more about rolling out and managing Microsoft Edge across your organization from our enterprise documentation, and you can download our offline deployment packages and administrative policy templates for configuring Microsoft Edge on Windows and macOS at our enterprise page. Eligible Microsoft 365 customers can also take advantage of Fast Track and App Assure support, launching in Q1 of 2020.
Once you have deployed the new Microsoft Edge to your organization, you can configure or restrict updates using the Microsoft Edge Update policies. In the future, we plan to include Microsoft Edge built-in to Windows, to be delivered through a future Windows 10 Feature Update for all customers.
For more guidance on deployment, check out this Microsoft Mechanics interview from Ignite, where host Jeremy Chapman interviews Chuck Friedman, CVP of Microsoft Edge engineering, and walks through deployment demos including Configuration Manager and a new security baseline for Microsoft Edge.
Getting ready for the new Microsoft Edge
Whether you’re just trying out the new Microsoft Edge for the first time, or have been with us on this journey over the last year, thank you for getting involved and helping make Microsoft Edge great. We’ve seen exciting momentum in the Chromium project over the last year, landing more than 1900 contributions across areas like accessibility, modern input including touch, speech, digital inking, and many more, and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s next.
Enterprise administrators and IT professionals can learn more about deploying, managing, and configuring the new Microsoft Edge in your organization at our new enterprise page.
Web developers can find guidance on incorporating Microsoft Edge into your test matrix in our recent blog post, “Getting your sites ready for the new Microsoft Edge,” as well as more information on new platform capabilities, developer tools, web apps, and more in our web developer documentation.
Happy browsing!
– Kyle Pflug, Senior PM Lead, Microsoft Edge