Microsoft is replacing Edge with its new Chromium browser next week (2023)

FAQs

Will Chromium Edge replace Edge? ›

The company's April cumulative update for Windows 10 will remove the old, outdated Edge browser and replace it with the newer Chromium-based version that debuted in 2020.

Comparing Edge Chromium vs. Edge. Microsoft Edge Chromium adopts many common interface characteristics in Google Chrome, including the layout of tabs, task manager, navigation bar, three-dot (Settings and more) menu and more. However, Edge includes its own suite of services rather than those included with Chrome.

So why has Microsoft decided to switch to Chromium? Microsoft has stated multiple reasons for making the switch from EdgeHTML to Chromium: Greater reach: Microsoft can now leverage Chromium's cross-platform technology—and make Edge available to all supported versions of Windows and other desktop platforms like macOS.

Support for the legacy version of the Microsoft Edge desktop app ended on March 9, 2021. The Microsoft Edge Legacy application will no longer receive security updates after that date. Go here to learn more.

Both of these browsers fare well in the speed category, but most testing sites have shown Edge to be faster than Chrome. If you tend to open a lot of tabs, Edge has been shown to use less memory per tab than Chrome in all of the tests that I've seen, so this can be a big advantage.

While both are significantly fast browsers, Edge might have a slight advantage. Based on a test in which six pages were loaded on each browser, Edge used 665MB of RAM, while Chrome used 1.4 GB. This would make a significant difference for systems running on limited memory.

To check this, launch Microsoft Edge and press the JAWS keystroke INSERT+Q to see what JAWS settings are currently loaded. If you are running JAWS 2020 or later and you receive the message “Microsoft Edge with Chromium settings are loaded,” then you are running the latest version of Edge.

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 in Windows 11 it is the default web browser (for compatibility with Google Chrome).

Clear Cache and Cookies

Sometimes, cookies and cache cause a slow Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 and 11. If the browser has a lot of them, it can affect its speed. Luckily, the fix is easy. You only need to delete them and you're good to go.

Why do all browsers use Chromium? ›

A major advantage is that Chromium allows Linux distributions that need open-source software to package a browser almost identical to Chrome. Linux distributors can also use Chromium as the default web browser in place of Firefox.

In fact, Microsoft Edge is more secure than Google Chrome for your business on Windows. It has powerful, built-in defenses against phishing and malware and natively supports hardware isolation on Windows—there's no additional software required to achieve this secure baseline.

The benefits of switching to Chromium — Since the new Chromium Edge will be based off the same browser as Google Chrome, Edge will now support all the same extensions.

The most common reason for Microsoft Edge crashing is browser extensions causing incompatibilities with the browser itself. Crashing can also be caused by corrupted Windows files, corrupted Microsoft Edge field, or a corrupted browser cache.

As of December 2022, Google Chrome had the largest market share in the United States, with over 50 percent, followed by Apple's Safari, with almost 34 percent. Furthermore, Microsoft's Edge browser had a United States market share of 6.73 percent.

Edge is the browser that comes as part of Windows 10, rest assured, you can safely run Chrome and Edge together on your PC and you can continue using Chrome as your default web browser after installing Edge . . .

​Microsoft Edge is now displaying in-browser alerts that discourage users from downloading Google Chrome by bashing the popular browser. As developers compete for control of browser market share, it is not uncommon for them to try and discourage users from downloading competing browsers.

Is Chromium the fastest browser? ›

Google Chrome is the fastest web browser you can get on a Windows machine. It surpassed the competition in three out of four tests, outranking even Microsoft's latest Edge browser—which is now based on Chromium—in all but one test.

Chromium browser is not a virus itself, it is a trustworthy application released by Google. People with the intent to harm the computers and spread the virus can embed a virus in the code and trick people into using the infected version.

Following in the footsteps of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge will adopt a new update schedule that drops updates every four weeks.

Another venerable browser and popular alternative, the Opera browser shares much of Chrome's DNA and deserves its place as one of the best web browsers. Like both Edge and Chrome, Opera is built on Google's open-source Chromium engine and, as a result, they all have a very similar user experience.

We recommend you transition to Microsoft Edge to enjoy a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing experience. Select the Start button, and then type Default apps. In the search results, select Default apps. Under Web browser, select the browser currently listed, and then select Microsoft Edge or another browser.

For starters, it didn't support plugins or extensions, which ushered internet users to other offerings anyway. Worse still, many felt as though they were being force-fed Edge. Not only is it already there if you're using Windows, but as a key Windows component, it cannot be deleted.

Chrome and Chromium are both fast browsers, but they rely on extensions since they don't have a wide range of features on their own. As you can tell, Chrome emerges as the victor once again. Chromium isn't a slow browser, but Chrome is much faster, according to our browser testing.

It's hard to pin down how accurate this exact stat is, but plenty of users around the web have run their own tests and come to the same conclusion: Edge is faster than Chrome. For example, Avast tested many browsers and found Edge to run faster than Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi.

Have you set Chrome as Default Browsser in Window Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Browser > choose Chrome. If so and Edge is still opening, check in all your Startup locations to make sure Edge nor anything else you don't need running for you personal use when Windows starts, is disabled.

How do I stop Edge from hijacking my browser? ›

Both browsers have a decent enough set of privacy and security features, but Edge is easier to navigate and provides more control for its users. However, Chrome has a more consistent update schedule, meaning that malware or exploits will get patched faster than Edge.

It's developed and released by Google, making it an extremely trustworthy application to put on your computer. The vast majority of its code was used as the source code for many of the most popular web browsers, including Google Chrome. In and of itself, Chromium is not malware and should not be removed immediately.

Chromium is a free and open-source web browser project, mainly developed and maintained by Google. This codebase provides the vast majority of code for the Google Chrome browser, which is proprietary software and has some additional features. The Chromium codebase is widely used.

In conclusion, yes. Chromium in fact does share your information with Google.

However, since Microsoft Edge is based on the Chromium project, you can uninstall it with Command Prompt using a process similar to the one to remove Google Chrome with command lines.

Edge replaced Microsoft Internet Explorer as the default browser, and in 2022, IE will be retired completely. Edge was originally an HTML-based browser, but in 2020 Microsoft released a new version of Edge based on Chromium, the same Google open-source software that Chrome uses.

Microsoft Edge is the web browser recommended by Microsoft and is the default web browser for Windows. Because Windows supports applications that rely on the web platform, our default web browser is an essential component of our operating system and can't be uninstalled.

You aren't able to uninstall edge as this is part of the operating system, however chrome will give you the option to set it as the default browser once installed.

How do I get my old Edge browser back? ›

Open the local Group Policy Editor and go to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Microsoft Edge Update>Applications>Microsoft Edge>. Select Rollback to target version and then select Enabled. Select Target version override and pick the browser version you want to roll back to.