Microsoft executives said that the new Chromium-based Edge browser will be available starting January 15, 2020. They also said in early November that the new Edge will be bundled with Windows 10 immediately after the availability date, although this will happen gradually.
This week, the company will release more details about the upcoming release of Edge on Windows 10.
The Chrome-based version of Edge will not follow Windows versions, the company said. Microsoft will roll out the new Edge automatically via Windows Update to all PCs already running Windows 10 1709 or later.
Microsoft notes about Edge:
The next version of Microsoft Edge will feature more frequent and flexible update capabilities. Because browser versions will not be tied to major Windows releases, changes will be made to the operating system to ensure that the next version of Microsoft Edge fits seamlessly into Windows. As such, feature updates will be released on a 6-week cycle (approximately.) Security and compatibility updates will be shipped as needed.
Microsoft will also release a Blocker Toolkit for the new Edge for companies that want to block the automatic deployment of the new Edge. (This Blocker Toolkit will also be able to run on Windows 10 Home systems by administrators.) The Blocker Toolkit will not prevent manual installation of the new Chromium-based application.
Microsoft officially launched the new Microsoft Edge Addons store for all developers on December 16. Developers can now submit their extensions through the Partner Center Developer Dashboard.
Chromium is an open source browser that is used as a base by many browser developers, including Google, Vivaldi, Opera, Yandex, Brave, and many others. Along with the release of Chrome in 2008, Google released most of Chrome's code as open source, and Chromium was born.
