Microsoft Edge celebrates customers moving to IE mode, Linux, and new search innovations

From the Microsoft Edge team, we want to thank and celebrate customers and users who continue to trust and partner with us to make Microsoft Edge the best browser for your environment.

Customers like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a global pharmaceutical firm with over 130,000 employees, set Microsoft Edge as their default browser earlier this year to improve security and simplify their IT environment. With Microsoft Edge’s dual engine advantage, GlaxoSmithKline continues to run critical legacy apps and sites across 92 countries, right alongside modern ones. “One browser that does it all”, is how Michael Freedberg, Director of Modern Workspace Engineering at GlaxoSmithKline, describes Microsoft Edge.

Similarly, we applaud Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA), the German federal employment agency, which has 95,000 employees and modernized its browser while delivering essential services during the pandemic. “We had so many applications that still depend on Internet Explorer,” Ronny Intrau, Browser Product Manager at BA, says. He describes Microsoft Edge as “one browser that handles two worlds for us.” The result is that everyone at BA, from IT to developers to employees, is better able to serve their citizen customers.

We are humbled that Microsoft Edge is a strategic choice for these customers and many others as they modernize their legacy applications and browsers.

This year at Ignite, Microsoft Edge continues its commitment to be the browser for business and to serve customers’ total needs, from the needs of IT Pros to developers to end-users. That means rounding out our platforms with Microsoft Edge on Linux. That means a new cloud site list management experience that simplifies setting up IE mode. And that means new innovations to help users get the most out of Microsoft 365 while using Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Edge reaches milestone on cross-platform journey: Available on Linux today

A common request is your need for Microsoft Edge to span the breadth of operating systems in your environment. Last October, we made Microsoft Edge available on Linux in preview channels (Dev and Beta channels) and today, the browser is generally available for Linux via the stable channel. This milestone officially rounds out the full complement of major platforms served by Microsoft Edge through stable channel: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and now Linux. To use Microsoft Edge on Linux, users can download it from our website or retrieve it using the command line from a Linux package manager.

To celebrate this moment with Linux fans, the Microsoft Edge Surf game (edge://surf) has a visitor from the Linux world in the Edge 97 release’s Dev channel. Surf away!

IE mode: Your key to success for IE retirement in June 2022

If you’ve missed the announcement, the Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) desktop application is set to retire on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10. That’s eight months left to move to Microsoft Edge with IE mode so that you DON’T have to modernize your many legacy web apps and sites immediately. IE mode is the critical step in that modernization journey—modernize your browser to Microsoft Edge and set up IE mode first, and then take the time needed to plan and pace out your legacy web app modernization. IE mode in Microsoft Edge is supported through at least 2029, giving you an eight-year runway to modernize those legacy apps to meet today’s standards.

What is the first step you need to take to move from IE11 to IE mode in Microsoft Edge? A critical one to take NOW is blocking 30 minutes on the upcoming Monday to kick off Site Discovery. Site Discovery identifies legacy-dependent sites in your organization based on user traffic. Because this step requires active users on your network, we recommend kicking this off before the holiday downtime. Beyond this step, it typically takes customers multiple months to get from Site Discovery to broad usage in their organizations. Don’t delay and get started on your transition today.

Need help or have questions about compatibility? We offer this App Assure promise: if your web apps and sites work on Internet Explorer 11, supported versions of Google Chrome, or any version of Microsoft Edge (including Microsoft Edge Legacy), those web apps and sites should work on Microsoft Edge. If an issue arises, you can either request assistance or email us ([email protected]) for remediation support at no additional cost. You can also read more about App Assure and Microsoft Edge in this blog.

Need help getting started with your transition to IE mode? Join us for a webinar and get your questions answered live.

Simplify the management of site lists with Cloud Site List Management

To accelerate an organization’s transition, we are releasing a new IT cloud experience to help simplify the management of your Enterprise Site List in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center— Cloud Site List Management.

Available now in public preview, the new Cloud Site List Management experience will enable IT to store site lists in an authenticated endpoint in the cloud instead of requiring on-premises infrastructure to host it. You can create, import, and export site lists, as well as audit changes to site list entries through the M365 Admin Center. Multiple site lists can be published to the cloud and group policy can be used to assign different groups of devices to use different lists. Watch our Ignite video to see a demo of Cloud Site List Management.

Microsoft Search shortcuts help users get more out of searching at work

Searching is one of the most common actions users do on the web. Microsoft Search is a part of Microsoft 365, keeping your data private and secure, while letting users find company resources and files from Microsoft 365, thanks to artificial intelligence technology from Microsoft Bing and personalized insights from Microsoft Graph. Employees can save 5-10 days by using Microsoft Search to search for internal information. It can also reduce support tickets by 30-60% when IT publishes answers to common internal questions in the bookmark system.

During Ignite, check out new and recently released features in Microsoft Search, including a Work Search shortcut and improvements to the Work Vertical. The Work Search shortcut functionality will help narrow the search scope by typing “work” or keywords customized by the IT Pro into the search bar in Microsoft Edge. The Work Vertical, a dedicated space in Bing to search for work related content, has been enhanced by the work search start page. It provides users with personalized work-related search suggestions to jump start their productivity for the day. Try it today.

Microsoft Search has also expanded its offerings to more customers. It is now available to US government cloud customers and there are new experiences tailored for schools. Don’t forget that Graph Connectors also expand your work search capabilities by indexing data from third-party services that you’re using. That makes it easy for your employees to go to one place—the address bar—to access information stored in disparate locations. We offer 130+ Graph Connectors to enhance your search experience.

Using Microsoft Search in Microsoft Edge is an easy way for users to get more out of their Microsoft 365 subscriptions today. Over the next six months, we’re launching new experiences that further connect Microsoft Edge with Microsoft 365 to help users work smarter and maintain context as they navigate between apps throughout the day. For more information on what’s coming, check out our blog that outlines this vision.

Thank you to our valued customers

We appreciate the positive reception we hear from everyone, including end-users, developers, and IT Pros, and continue to be inspired to make the web easier for you. To close, we celebrate our customers’ voices with what we heard as your favorite things in this new video.

We wish you a wonderful Ignite, and stay safe.