Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge (or simply Edge) is a proprietary cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft. Released in 2015 as part of Windows 10 and Xbox One, it was initially built with Microsoft's own proprietary browser engine, EdgeHTML, and their Chakra JavaScript engine. Later on, it was ported to Android and iOS as a fork of Google's Chromium open-source project. In late 2018, Microsoft announced it would completely rebuild Edge as a Chromium-based browser with Blink and V8 engines, which allowed the browser to be ported to macOS. The new Edge was publicly released in January 2020, and on Xbox platforms in 2021. Microsoft has since terminated security support for the original browser (now referred to as Microsoft Edge Legacy), and Edge is also available on older Windows versions (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and later were supported until early 2023), as well as Linux.
Microsoft Edge on Windows 11 | |||||||
| Original author(s) | Microsoft | ||||||
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft | ||||||
| Initial release | July 29, 2015 | ||||||
| Stable release(s) | |||||||
| Preview release(s) [±] | |||||||
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| Written in | C++ | ||||||
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| Operating system | Android 8.0 or later iOS 15.0 or later macOS 10.15 or later Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 or later Linux (specifically Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE distributions) | ||||||
| Platform | IA-32 x86-64 ARM32 ARM64 | ||||||
| Included with | Windows 10 Windows 10 Mobile Windows 11 Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S system software | ||||||
| Predecessor | Internet Explorer | ||||||
| License | Proprietary software, based on an open source project | ||||||
| Website | microsoft | ||||||
Although it was created as the successor to Internet Explorer (IE), Internet Explorer 11 remained available alongside Edge on Windows 10 for compatibility until 2023, when it was removed. In Windows 11, Edge is the default web browser, as well as the only browser available from Microsoft (for compatibility with Google Chrome). However, it includes an "Internet Explorer mode," aimed at fixing compatibility issues; it provides the legacy MSHTML browser engine and supports the legacy ActiveX and BHO technologies.
In May 2022, according to StatCounter, Microsoft Edge became the second most popular browser in the world, overtaking Apple Safari (in some countries, such as the United States, Edge is the 3rd most popular, where it has a 14% share, slightly behind Safari's 16% share). As of September 2022, Edge is used by 11% of PCs worldwide.