Microsoft Edge 118: Top new policies and features

Microsoft just released Microsoft Edge 118 to the Beta Channel, and the new Edge comes with new policies and new features, as well.

Of course, the browser has been getting rid of a lot of useful features (Math Solver, Citation, Grammar Tools), and it seems that it will deprecate some features on the 118 release as well, according to Microsoft’s latest blog.

There is a chance Microsoft will replace the deprecated features with AI-enhanced ones in the future, but for now, the Redmond-based hasn’t said anything yet.

Microsoft Edge 118 is all about new policies that will allow IT admins and managers to customize Edge for organizations. We’re summarizing all the new policies, features, and changes coming in Edge 118, below, so take a look.

Microsoft Edge 118: All the new features and policies

The new features

• Microsoft Edge for Business Banner. 
  • Microsoft Edge for Business is a dedicated Microsoft Edge experience built for work that enables admins in organizations to give their users a productive and secure work browser across managed and unmanaged devices.
  • The in-product Microsoft Edge for Business banner is being deprecated and will no longer be visible.
• Microsoft Edge migrates the updates experience into Browser Essentials. 
  • Getting alerts on available Edge Updates will come from Browser Essentials instead of the Settings page for better visibility and experience.
  • Note: This feature is a controlled feature rollout. If you don’t see this feature, check back as we continue our rollout.
• Find on page. 
  • Searching for a word or phrase on a webpage has become easier with the new smart find update to Find on page.
  • Now when you search with Find on page, we’ll suggest related matches and synonyms making it effortless to find what you’re looking for, even if you misspell a word in your search query.
  • When you search, simply select the suggested word to quickly locate the desired word or phrase on the page.

The new policies

• New SmartScreen policy. 
  • The ExemptSmartScreenDownloadWarnings policy lets administrators create a dictionary of file type extensions with a corresponding list of domains that will be exempted from SmartScreen AppRep warnings.
  • Files with file-type extensions specified for domains identified by this policy will still be subject to file-type extension-based security warnings and mixed-content download warnings.
• New Microsoft Edge Update policies. 
  • The MeteredUpdatesDefault and MeteredUpdates policies allow administrators to control the “Download Updates over metered connections” setting (edge://settings/help).
  • The MeteredUpdatesDefault applies to all apps and MeteredUpdates applies to targeted apps.
  • When a policy is configured to Allow, updates occur on a metered connection, such as cellular connections or others where data usage is controlled.
• CompressionDictionaryTransportEnabled 
  • Enable compression dictionary transport support
• DataUrlInSvgUseEnabled 
  • Data URL support for SVGUseElement
• ExemptSmartScreenDownloadWarnings 
  • Disable SmartScreen AppRep-based warnings for specified file types on specified domains
• ForcePermissionPolicyUnloadDefaultEnabled 
  • Controls, whether unload event handlers, can be disabled
• PictureInPictureOverlayEnabled 
  • Enable Picture in Picture overlay feature on supported webpages in Microsoft Edge

For now, Microsoft Edge 118 is live on the Beta Channel, as we mentioned earlier, but these new features and policies will make their way to the Stable Channel.

Some of the features and policies are on the controlled roll-out, and this means they will be gradually released to users on the Beta Channel. They will also be gradually released to the Stable Channel as well.