Microsoft Edge version 100 hits the stable channel with some tweaks

All Microsoft Edge users should now be seeing version 100 of the web browser as an update. This comes two weeks after version 100 hit the beta channel with Edge Insiders. Yet despite the big version number, there’s nothing major in this release, with Microsoft just noting five changes.

The five changes in version 100 cover the change in the user-agent string, tweaks for Microsoft 365 application protocols, hardware-enforced stack protection, and PDFs. These all have been tested with Edge Insiders over the past few months. Here’s the full change log of added features, from Microsoft.

• Three-digit version number in the User-agent string. Microsoft Edge will now send a three-digit version number, such as Edg/100 in the User-Agent header.
• Streamlining Microsoft 365 Application Protocol Activations. Microsoft 365 Application Protocol Activations on trusted Microsoft cloud storage services will now launch certain Microsoft 365 applications directly, including SharePoint subdomains and Microsoft OneDrive URLs.
• Hardware-enforced Stack Protection. Microsoft Edge will continue supporting more fine-grained protection by combating memory corruption vulnerabilities and by protecting indirect calls.
• Open Digitally Signed PDF files. Digital signatures are used extensively to validate the authenticity of a document and changes made in a document. You can use the PDFSecureMode policy to enable digital signature validation for PDF files, directly from the browser, without the need for any add-ins.
• Preview PDF files in Microsoft Outlook and File Explorer. Users can view a PDF file in a lightweight and rich read-only preview. This feature is available for Outlook Desktop PDF attachments or for local PDF files using File Explorer.

For folks who usually keep track of policy changes, there’s a bunch added in this release, and some that are also depreciated too. Check Microsoft’s change log  for those. As always, Edge should download this update automatically, but if it doesn’t, just head to the Help and Feedback menu in Edge, choose About Microsoft Edge, and then restart the web browser when prompted.

It has been nearly two years since the new Chromium based Microsoft Edge launched, and the browser has slowly made its way to the top. The latest Statcounter report from March has Edge as the #2 browser in the world, with a 9.65% share. That’s behind Chrome, which has 67.29%.