Microsoft Edge now natively supports Apple's new M1 chips. If you go to Microsoft's page for Edge and select 'Download for macOS,' you will see options to get the browser for a Mac with an Intel. I think you'll find that Microsoft Edge generally has problems on the new M1 Mac, a Google search should reveal such reports as recent as 6 days ago. The new Edge is Chromium-based, so I don't think that the resources used would be all that different. Issue: MS Edge Beta Version: Version 90.0.810.1 (Official build) Dev (64-bit) Playing videos in MS Edge Beta on an M1 Mac crashes the machine. I tried a few different videos and this seems to be easy to reproduce on my machine. Steps to repro: Open Activity Monitor Click on the Memory tab Goto. The new Microsoft Edge is based on Chromium and was released on January 15, 2020. It is compatible with all supported versions of Windows, and macOS. With speed, performance, best in class compatibility for websites and extensions, and built-in privacy and security features, it's the only browser you'll ever need.
A while back, Microsoft Edge was just the default Windows 10 web browser. After ditching the old EdgeHTML engine in favor of Chromium, it has finally started to gain serious traction. And rather surprisingly, Microsoft Edge is now also available on the Mac. But how does it stack against Apple's own native Safari browser for macOS?
Safari runs like a charm on the Mac with great performance and battery life. But being based on the Chromium engine does give Microsoft Edge an advantage coming into unfamiliar territory. Google Chrome uses the same browser engine, so adopting Chromium guarantees Edge greater web compatibility.
I've used Microsoft Edge alongside Safari ever since its arrival on the Mac. Here's my take on how Microsoft Edge fares against Safari on Mac.
User Interface
Microsoft Edge doesn't attempt to do anything special compared to Chromium alternatives such as Opera or Vivaldi. But its user interface just works. The default tabs provide a search bar that you can comfortably type into and quick links to sites that you frequently visit. You do get a rather annoying news feed, but it's something that you can quickly turn off.
The browser features a slightly larger-than-average address bar, which makes performing Omnibox searches a breeze. The nifty profile icon also allows you to manage, create, and use multiple profiles conveniently. At the same time, the Edge menu gives instant access to browser settings, extensions, progressive web apps, and other features.
However, Microsoft Edge does feel rather clunky and rough. Animations and transitions feel jarring, and I've often experienced input lag while navigating the user interface. However, those issues aren't that serious to put a dent in your browsing experience. After a while, you won't even notice.
On the other hand, Safari feels smooth and polished to near perfection. But its tiny tab strip and address bar aren't exactly geared toward great user experience. The fact that you have to use the confusing menu bars whenever you want to configure the browser seems rather dated.
Performance
It's almost impossible to beat Safari on the Mac in terms of performance. After all, Apple knows its hardware and software the best. But Microsoft Edge doesn't lag behind with its new Chromium engine. In my experience, Microsoft's browser performs almost on par with Safari.
Furthermore, Microsoft Edge technically has better compatibility withwebsites, once again, due to Chromium engine integration. So if you have trouble accessing asite in Safari, you can almost guarantee that it would load up justfine in Edge.
But what about battery life? Just like any native macOS application, Safari excels in that department.But Chromium has improved its efficiency over the yearson the Mac. So don't expect any rampant battery draining issues withEdge.
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Read MorePrivacy Protection
Safari provides native protection against third-party cookies that monitor your browsing activity across websites. You can also ramp things up with content blocking extensions, which help a lot to thwart even more web trackers while improving page load times.
Microsoft Edge also doesn't disappoint when it comes to preserving your privacy. The browser comes with an integrated content blocking module dubbed Tracking Prevention. It offers three different levels of protection (Basic, Balanced, and Strict), which range from blocking tracking cookies, malicious scripts, to personalized advertisements.
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Click here to see our macos articles pageExtensions Support
Starting with version 13 of Safari for macOS, Apple completely dropped support for legacy extensions, which was a terrible move (at least in my opinion) despite the concerns over privacy. Hence, the current crop of 'supported extensions' is minimal.
Also, most compatible extensions require a fee to work in the first place. As a power user, I now find Safari a hard sell on the Mac.
Microsoft Edge M1 Mac Download
The new Microsoft Edge, however, offers an impressive and growing library of extensions. Just head over to the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store. You can find a ton of add-ons that can dramatically boost your productivity, enhance your shopping or social media experience, and more.
To make things even better, Microsoft Edge lets you install extensions designed for other Chromium browsers such as Google Chrome.
Data Syncing
While Safari is great at syncing bookmarks and passwords via iCloud to your iPhone and iPad, the browser isn't available outside the Apple ecosystem. Therefore, accessing your data on other platforms is often next to impossible. On Windows, the most you can do is sync your Safari bookmarks to Chrome or Firefox. And yes, better forget Android altogether.
Microsoft Edge for the Mac, on the other hand, is truly cross-platform. You can easily access your browsing data (bookmarks, passwords, extensions, etc.) not just on the iPhone and iPad, but also on Windows and Android. Of course, you must have a Microsoft Account to sync your Edge browsing data, but it's incredibly easy to create one.
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Microsoft Edge is shaping up to be a terrific web browser on the Mac, with unique features such as Collections starting to differentiate it from the myriad Chromium clones out there. It also receives frequent updates and feature revisions, something that Safari sorely lacks.
Both browsers offer solid privacy-related features, so a switchover depends completely on what else you prefer. If you like a user interface that's easy to use, an extensions library that allows for endless possibilities, or the ability to sync your data across multiple platforms, then Microsoft Edge is worth trying out.
For those of you who don't stray out of the Apple ecosystem much, love the performance and battery life in Safari, or its pure stability and reliability, it's just better to stick to the Mac's native web browser.
Next up:Decided to go with Microsoft Edge on your Mac? Check the next link to easily import your browsing data from other browsers to Microsoft Edge on your Mac.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
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Are you getting confused between
Today, Microsoft is releasing Edge Dev build 89.0.731.0. As always, there are some minor new features, but there are some key things to note this week. For one thing, Microsoft is finally going to be supporting Apple's new ARM processors next week in the Canary channel.
But there's bad news for Apple users as well. Outside of the Canary channel, this is the last build of the year. That means no more Dev, Beta, or Stable updates until 2021, so if you're waiting for that Mac on ARM support, even the Dev channel won't get it until at least January.
As for what's new, there's not much. Here's the list:
- Added an indicator to show when a tab has been muted because the underlying system audio has been muted.
- Added an option to Settings to disable downloading Edge updates over metered connections. Note that this is currently only available on Windows 10.
- Added a Setting to disable the F12 entry point to the Dev Tools.
- Added support for forcing popup windows into new tabs instead in Kiosk mode.
- Enabled support for the management policies from Chromium to Enable Basic Auth Over HTTP, and that Target Blank Implies No Opener.
And of course, there are fixes and known issues. Here's what got fixed for improved reliability:
- Fixed an issue where Edge can’t open.
- Fixed an issue where Edge doesn’t shut down properly or install updates if certain extensions are installed.
- Fixed an issue where searching from the new tab page sometimes crashes the browser.
- Fixed a crash when downloading files.
- Fixed a crash on Mac when checking for updates.
- Fixed an issue on Mac where closing a popup menu sometimes crashes the browser.
- Fixed an issue where playing Dolby Vision media on Netflix sometimes crashes with error D7361-1253.
- Fixed an issue where opening a page in Immersive Reader sometimes fails.
- Fixed an issue where the Pinning Wizard doesn’t open.
Here's what's fixed for changed behavior:
Microsoft Edge M1 Mac Download
- Added a delay to the Shy UI between when the mouse leaves it and when it disappears.
- Fixed an issue where items can’t be added to Collections when using Immersive Reader.
- Fixed an issue where closing a tab sometimes causes a gap between the rest of the tabs and the new tab button.
- Fixed an issue on Mac where Edge sometimes takes over the screen when an update notification is shown.
- Fixed an issue where the option to always translate a page sometimes doesn’t work.
- Fixed an issue where selecting a password in the autofill flyout sometimes puts the wrong password in the field when multiple passwords are available.
- Fixed an issue where the Coupons prompt appears in the Address Bar, but no comparisons are shown in the flyout.
- Fixed an issue where text notes on PDFs sometimes can’t be dragged to another position.
- Fixed an issue where the profile picture in Settings is sometimes broken.
- Fixed an issue where opening the Favorites or history menu when their buttons are hidden from the toolbar sometimes causes the buttons to stay on the toolbar.
- Fixed an issue where Edge’s update status in Settings sometimes isn’t shown on Linux.
- Deprecated the management policy to Allow Popups During Page Unload.
- Obsoleted the management policies to Send Site Info To Improve Services and Enable Metrics Reporting as they have been replaced by the policies for Diagnostic Data and to Allow Telemetry, as well as to Force the Legacy Default Referrer Policy.
Microsoft Edge M1 Mac Os
Finally, here's what's broken:
- Certain extensions such as the Microsoft Editor extension don’t work on Linux. As soon as they’re installed, they crash and are disabled. We’re currently investigating.
- Users of certain ad blocking extensions may experience playback errors on Youtube. As a workaround, temporarily disabling the extension should allow playback to proceed. See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/known-issue-adblock-causing-errors-on-youtube/m-p/14... for more details.
- Some users are still running into an issue where all tabs and extensions immediately crash with a STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_HASH error. The most common cause of this error is outdated security or antivirus software from vendors like Symantec, and in those cases, updating that software will fix it.
- Users of the Kaspersky Internet Suite who have the associated extension installed may sometimes see webpages like Gmail fail to load. This failure is due to the main Kaspersky software being out of date, and is thus fixed by making sure the latest version is installed.
- Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before. This issue should be reduced now that automatic deduplication has been introduced into Insider channels. However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the manual deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for the automatic deduplication to make it to Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.
- Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other. Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices. This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag.
As always, you can grab today's build by going to Settings -> About Microsoft Edge. If you don't feel like updating manually, you can wait for it to happen in the background.