Q. What are some of the key new features in Microsoft Edge?
A. Microsoft Edge is a clean start for interacting with the web in many ways. Firstly Internet Explorer has had to maintain a large amount of legacy support to be compatible with various technologies over the past 20 years which leads to an expanded attack surface. Microsoft Edge has removed all this legacy support and instead focuses on the future with HTML5 support, JavaScript-based extensions, built-in Flash and PDF support and a new rendering engine that can be updated easily to keep up-to-date with the latest web changes. If you need legacy functionality such as ActiveX then this will be detected and Microsoft Edge will guide you to open it in Internet Explorer (which is still provided). Microsoft Edge does not use an Edge specific browser ID and will therefore just work with websites.
Some of the key features include the following:
- Web Notes - Enables interaction with web pages which enables them to be written on with various pens, highlighters and text boxes. It's possible to easily snip parts of a webpage which is then copied to the clipboard. Pages with web notes can be saved to the reading list/favorites (which saves it as a local HTML file) or to OneNote which will save as a picture
- Sharing - Pages can be shared which for regular web pages sends as a link or for pages with Web Notes an image of the page is sent to the recipient
- Hub - Easy access to the favorites, reading list, history and download history
- Reading view - Click the book icon to go into reading mode which removes the distractions of a page and opens a clean view of just the main content of the page with easier to read text which can be changed in both size and theme via the Microsoft Edge settings
- Integration with Cortana - If Cortana is enabled on the system there is integration between Microsoft Edge and Cortana in 3 key ways. Firstly type a question in the Microsoft Edge address bar such as "what is the weather outside" and the answer will present itself. If you right click on text selection on a webpage you can select Ask Cortana for help about the selected text. Finally certain pages will prompt Cortana to offer assistance, for example if you select a restaurant Cortana may offer to help in getting to the restaurant and helping make a reservation.
