Microsoft really wants users to embrace its Edge browser. Its latest effort involves unveiling a pleasingly rotund $2M prize pot to tempt users over. That figure includes a grand prize of $1M in cash, some alluring Mercedes-Benz automobiles, and “thousands of instant prizes.” Sadly for Microsoft/Edge, it has taken over a month for the media to become aware of this new barnstorming Rewards package with NeoWin flagging it as a surprise “new promotion in Edge” this Thursday.

Head to the rewards.bing.com link at the top of this article, and you will be asked to sign in to join the rewards program. There are T&Cs, privacy, and official rules smallprint links to digest. But basically, you will be agreeing to “receive emails about Microsoft Rewards, which include offers about Microsoft and partner products.” There is no monetary fee for entering the sweepstakes. But you can use Microsoft Rewards points balances to accrue more entries. The unfeasibly large maximum entry limit is 465 entries per person/account/email address/mobile phone number.

Sharing links to the prizes event page can also net you more entries and chances to get something from the prize pot. As this rewards program has been running for a month, we can see multiple folks across the world who have already won this and that. For example, someone in Spain won an Acer Copilot+ PC, an entrant from the U.S. snagged a $50 Xbox Gift Card, and someone from Mexico managed to lasso a ROG Xbox Ally handheld. Is the chance of this kind of prize worth the potential spammy email avalanche? That’s up to you.

The official rules say that the sweepstakes are open to U.S. residents, as well as those in Canada and a multitude of South American and European countries. We see New Zealand, Japan, and South Africa are listed, too. No, we don’t know what happened to Australia.

If you want to convert the $1,000,000 grand prize to your local currency – perhaps you are an optimist – Microsoft has already done the work for you. It is “approximately $1,380,000 CAD / £740,000 GBP / €860,000 EUR / Fr. 800,000 CHF / kr 10,100,000 NOK / $18,000,000 MXN / S/ 3,400,000 PEN / ₡498 000 000 CRC / Q7,000,000 GTQ / $1,730,000 NZD / ¥157,000,000 JPY / Kč 20,800,000 CZK / lei 4,350,000 RON / R 16,500,000 ZAR.” Some unfortunate countries will face Microsoft withholding 30% of the prize value in tax.

Three cars are up for grabs to appeal to the petrolheads among you. The rules suggest that winners will pop to their local Mercedes-Benz dealer, where a budget of $100,000 (or local equivalent) will be all yours to play with. You can’t buy a key fob and get the remainder in cash, though, so canny winners should max out their Merc specs to the last cent.

With an intent to have its default browser favored by gamers (and others), Microsoft is working on a feature to allow Edge users to limit the browser's RAM consumption. Once applied, other applications can take advantage of the free memory. According X / Twitter user Leopeva64, who was quick to notice this new option, the Edge browser will allow you to set the RAM limit via a slider. 

Microsoft released this experimental Edge feature in its Canary Build. The setting is placed under the Edge browser's 'System and Performance' tab. The tab will allow a more user-friendly ability to limit system memory, but it's designed for 'more-than-casual' users. Additionally, this feature also has a function to allow you to limit the RAM use all the time, or specifically when you play a game.

Interestingly, Microsoft did not mention this experimental feature in its Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26090 announcement. 

The slider has memory interval options from 1GB, up to the system's maximum physical memory. Gamers and content creators can take advantage of this as you multi-task between productivity, gaming, and browsing. With Chrome being notoriously memory-intensive, Microsoft likely sees this as a chance to make its Edge browser a bit more appealing.

That said, limiting the browser to a small amount of memory will undoubtedly have an impact on your experience, so you'll need to actively balance between your number of open tabs and third-party browser extensions.

Gamers are not the only ones who could benefit from this feature, as productivity tools also tend to be memory intensive at times. Like gamers, such users wouldn't want RAM limit enabled all the time, but being able to turn the feature on and off could be appealing. 

With Canary and public BETA builds, nothing is set in stone. Either specific functions in a feature, or the feature itself. Microsoft has enabled optimizations and features in the past for Canary builds. Even if this is only currently available for selected users, once the bugs and issues are ironed it will hopefully be available for the public eventually. 

Would This Help Gain Edge Gain Its Market Share?

No feature will make users shift to a particular browser immidiately but features such as RAM limiter help. While certain features do eventually get adopted by certain third-party browsers, the time taken to implement it. While there are many stat counters to show the browser's market share, most agree Google Chrome has a large share, with MacOS Safari taking a second spot and Edge taking the third space. Consumer trends change in time and it is simply a matter of time when such dominance begins to fall as many are competing in this space. 

Competition is good, and with Microsoft learning a valuable lesson that going the anti-competitive way is counter-productive, we should see all internet browser makers make new optimizations and features for upcoming versions.

Microsoft is again drawing users' ire with new changes coming to Microsoft 365 Outlook and Teams apps. Previously with these apps, clicking on a link would open the default browser that a user set within Windows. So, if you clicked a link in Outlook and your default browser was Google Chrome, it would only open in Chrome.

However, Microsoft explains that these links will now open in Microsoft Edge by default. Edge is, of course, the successor to Internet Explorer, and Microsoft has tried all kinds of tricks over the years to boost the browser's market share. Nevertheless, Microsoft says that this change is for the benefit of its users.

"If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, browser links from the Outlook app will open in Microsoft Edge by default, right alongside the email they're from in the Microsoft Edge sidebar pane," Microsoft writes in a support post. "This allows you to easily access, read, and respond to the message using your matching authenticated profile. No more disruptive switching—just your email and the web content you need to reference, in a single, side-by-side view."

According to Microsoft, this change will first come to Outlook but later arrive for Teams to "help you stay engaged in conversations as you browse the web."

Not surprisingly, many users aren't thrilled about Microsoft's latest change of heart to "help" its users. A quick trip to the sysadmin Reddit shows that IT administrators are livid about the change. "In all seriousness, forcing their browser on users through unscrupulous OS choices and vendor negotiations was the prime reason for the original anti-trust suit. I fail to see how this is any different at all," wrote ripvannwinkler. Another user, unixuser011, added, "This isn't the 90's anymore, you can't act like Edge is the only game in town, you have to respect people's browser choice. You aren't Google, stop acting like it." 

Redditor hume_reddit provided further context on how the change affects organizations:

• Only links set to open via a web browser are affected. Links that are set to open in a client app or within Outlook itself will continue to do so.
• User experiences will vary by policy configuration; please see the next section.
• Web links from all accounts in the Outlook for Windows app will open in Microsoft Edge, but the side-by-side experience is not available for non-AAD or non-MSA accounts at this time.

As if sensing that this change wouldn't be well-received by all users, Microsoft concludes its support post by stating, "Ultimately though, if this experience isn't right for you, you can turn off this feature the first time it launches in Microsoft Edge, and then in Outlook settings at any time after that."

Interestingly, this latest pro-Edge move comes as StatCounter reports that Apple's Safari overtook Edge for second place in global desktop browser market share for April 2023. StatCounter reports that Safari captured 11.89 percent of the desktop browser market, while Edge slipped to 10.95 percent.

Microsoft Edge started out as a relatively barebones and resource-efficient rival to Google Chrome and as a replacement for the unloved Internet Explorer browser. As it has, it's gained new features that have been most useful but occasionally infuriating (we’re looking at you, Discover). However, Microsoft’s latest Canary Channel build of Edge enables a Split Screen option that could be useful to many people. It was first noticed by Leopeva64-2 on Reddit.   

While every modern browser includes tabs that make it easier to switch from one website to another, simultaneously viewing information from two websites isn’t possible without opening a new browser window. Microsoft Edge’s new Split Screen option allows you to combine two tabs into one and view them side-by-side. Split Screen is an experimental feature only available in the latest Edge Canary release (Build 111.0.1639.0), which you can access with the following steps:

1. Download and install the latest build from the Microsoft Edge Canary Channel for Windows 10/11.

2. Type “edge://flags” in the Edge address bar. This will bring up a list of all experimental features accessible in the latest Edge Canary build.

3. Type “split” in the Search flags box to bring up the Split Screen feature.

4. Click the arrow on the drop-down menu and select Enabled. You will be asked to restart Edge to make the changes stick. Click Restart.

5. Once Edge restarts, you should see a new Split Window icon to the right of the address bar. Click it.

6. If you have more than one tab open, you’ll see your current active tab on the left window and your other available tabs on the right window.

7. Click on the second tab that you want active. It will now display in the right window.

Now you can view two pages side-by-side and independently scroll through each. You can also have multiple Split Window sessions spread across multiple tabs or group them. It’s a great way to enhance your workflow, and we’re happy to see Microsoft putting valuable, differentiating features into Edge. 

Currently, the new Microsoft Edge Split Screen feature is only available in the latest Canary Channel build for Windows 10/11. It is not available on the Dev or Beta Channels. Unfortunately, macOS users are also out of luck, as the most recent Canary Channel build (111.0.1633.0) does not support the feature.

It is unknown at this time when Split Screen will find its way into more stable Dev or Beta Channels or when it will eventually land in the stable release.

Steam Deck owners must be feeling rather pleased with themselves right now. First, most pre-ordered a device before the reviews, and it has turned out to be a solid gold buy. Secondly, if you wanted to buy one right now, you would have to run the gauntlet of scalpers. And Valve has done a good job getting hundreds of Steam games verified for the fledgling platform. Now there is some more good news, as Microsoft today announced support for Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate through Microsoft Edge (Beta) for the Steam Deck.

Microsoft Edge community manager MSFTMissy posted on Reddit about Edge now being able to facilitate Xbox Cloud Gaming on the Steam Deck. Missy sounded rather excited as she explained how the Edge team worked closely with Valve and the Xbox Cloud Gaming teams to achieve this game streaming feat. She went on to say how today's news of Xbox Cloud Gaming on Steam Deck will "open new opportunities in the Linux gaming community." The Edge CM also assured readers that "this is just the beginning of the story for gaming on Edge."

Double Beta Alert - Cross Your Fingers and Toes

With two major enabling pieces of software still in beta, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that getting Xbox Cloud Gaming working on your new Steam Deck isn't exactly consumer-friendly. After a bunch of routine settings and app menu fiddling tasks, you must dive into the command line chomping Konsole and input some lengthy commands. Please head on over to the Reddit link in the previous paragraph if this is something you might do in the immediate future. For the less tech-savvy readers, Microsoft has a dedicated support article featuring more detail and some screenshots to guide you through.

There seems little point in replicating the methodology of wrangling Xbox Cloud Streaming onto a Steam Deck here, as the apps, install, and preparation method should be finessed over the coming weeks - and methods could (and should) change. Suffice to say, you need both Microsoft Edge (Beta), Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta), as well as an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to go through the process.

Before signing off, it is worth reminding readers that you can still play a range of titles from Xbox Game Studios natively on Steam Deck. A list of compatible titles is available here. Some notable non-working omissions, which have anti-cheap issues at the time of writing, include; Gears 5, Halo MCC, Halo Infinite, and Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

Valve and Microsoft are also working on getting Windows 10 and 11 on the Steam Deck. You can test it, but it isn't quite ready for prime time.

Microsoft didn't win any new fans when it changed the default browser behavior in Windows 11. Rather than allowing Windows 11 users to change the browser defaults with a single click, they were forced to individually change default apps for HTM, HTML, PDF, SHTML, SVG, WEBP, XHT, XHTML, FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS formats. Thankfully, app developer Rafael Riviera (via Beebom) discovered that Microsoft reversed course in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509, which was released earlier this week.

In this preview build Microsoft has reverted to the Windows 10-style procedure, which allows users to set a default browser with a single button click. This is a welcome change and something that we feel Microsoft shouldn't have messed with in the first place. As one might expect, Microsoft sets its Edge browser as the default when installing Windows 11. But making it harder for users to change to their preferred browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox was sure to garner backlash.

For its part, Microsoft confirmed this latest move, telling The Verge, "In the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 released to the Dev Channel on Wednesday, we streamlined the ability for a Windows Insider to set the 'default browser' to apps that register for HTTP:, HTTPS:, .HTM, and .HTML. Through the Windows Insider Program you will continue to see us try new things based on customer feedback and testing."

However, this isn't the only news in the ongoing war that Microsoft is waging against competing browser manufacturers. Neowin reported yesterday that Microsoft is getting a bit aggressive (with some added humor) when users try to download Google Chrome using the Edge browser. Instead of staying completely out of the way, Microsoft pelts the users with one of the following popups:

• Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft"
• "I hate saving money," said no one ever. Microsoft Edge is the best browser for online shopping.
• That browser is so 2008! Do you know what's new? Microsoft Edge.

While it is probably annoying for Windows users who simply want to quickly hop into their favorite browser and get on with life, Microsoft thankfully doesn't put up any onerous roadblocks to downloading the software.

Microsoft this week confirmed to Paul Thurrott that it is forcing the Edge browser on Windows 11 users in specific scenarios (i.e., opening search results from the Start menu). Moreover, the company is taking this action even if customers have a third-party browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox set as their default browser.

“Windows openly enables applications and services on its platform, including various web browsers,” said Microsoft in a statement to Thurrott. “At the same time, Windows also offers certain end-to-end customer experiences in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, the search experience from the taskbar is one such example of an end-to-end experience that is not designed to be redirected. When we become aware of improper redirection, we issue a fix.”

Microsoft is, of course, talking about EdgeDeflector. Daniel Aleksandersen, the developer of EdgeDeflector, noticed that Windows 11 builds 22483 and 22494 Insider Preview builds blocked his app from functioning. So Aleksandersen designed EdgeDeflector to allow a Windows user’s default browser to display Start menu search results, bypassing Microsoft’s hijacking of the customer’s default browser choice.

When a customer sets Chrome, for example, as their default browser, it’s a reasonable assumption that it would be used within Windows 11 for all browser-related duties. Microsoft disagrees as it cites a disruption to the end-to-end user experience for customers with workaround apps like EdgeDeflector. However, we’d argue that if a customer has chosen to use a third-party browser, forcing Edge upon them for simple tasks is a direct contradiction of this edict.

“It’s clearly a user-hostile move that sees Windows compromise its own product usability in order to make it more difficult to use competing products,” said Aleksandersen last week. “Your web browser is probably the most important — if not the only — app you regularly use. Microsoft has made it clear that its priorities for Windows don’t align with its users’.”

Aleksandersen tells users to complain to local antitrust regulators or switch to a competing operating system like Linux to put pressure on Microsoft. However, if you want a slightly complicated workaround for Microsoft’s latest attack on default browsers, there’s a new script that allows you to maintain the status quo.

This is the latest saga in the default browser battle in Windows 11. The company caught flak recently, most vocally from Firefox developer Mozilla, for making it more difficult for users to switch their default browser.

Though now-a-days it's a perfectly fine browser, Microsoft Edge is not for everyone. In fact, by many estimates, Edge is not for most people, representing just 3.5 percent of the market, compared to 64.9 percent for Chrome. 

The majority of users who reject Edge, are content to simply install Chrome, Firefox or Opera and change the default browser in Windows 11 or 10. But for some folks, it's not enough to avoid using Microsoft's browser and leave it as a vestigial organ on the body of their Start menus; they want to remove Edge altogether.

Normally, if you want to uninstall an application in Windows 11 or 10, you just navigate to Settings->Apps->Apps & features, locate the name of your app, select uninstall and (Microsoft) Bob's your uncle. But, with Edge, the uninstall option is grayed out and you need to use some command-line magic to get the job done.

Note that uninstalling Microsoft Edge does not prevent it from being listed as your default browser (you have to change that separately) nor does it stop the Windows 11 widget and Windows search's web results from attempting (and failing) to launch themselves in Edge. There are workarounds, however, which we cover below. 

How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 11 or 10

1. Navigate to the Edge About page by going to the browser's settings menu and then Help & feedback->About Microsoft Edge.

The edge About page will appear.

2. Copy the version number into your clipboard by highlighting it (just the number) and hitting CTRL + C. You may want to paste it into a notepad document for safe keeping.

3. Launch the command prompt in admin mode. The easiest way is by searching for "cmd," right clicking the top result and selecting "Run as administrator."

4. Enter the following command where [VERSION] is replaced with the actual Edge version number (in my case, it was 93.0.961.38). 

cd %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\[VERSION]\Installer

5. Enter the following uninstall command.

setup --uninstall --force-uninstall --system-level

6. Change your default browser if you haven't done so already. If Edge was your default before you uninstalled it, Windows 11 will still list it as the default (though with a blue box as an icon), which could cause problems when you try to click a link in another app. 

See our tutorial on how to change your default browser in Windows 11 for details on how to make the change. If you want to continue to click links in the Widgets box or those that appear in Windows search, you'll need to use EdgeDeflector.

If you want to reinstall Microsoft Edge, you can search for and download it directly from the Microsoft Store. 

Microsoft Edge will then download itself and install like any other app. 

Microsoft claims that as of a new release this week, its Edge browser will be the "best performing browser on Windows 10." The announcement was made at the company's annual Build developer conference, being held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Edge version 91 releases, it will include two new features in startup boost and sleeping tabs that should boost performance. Startup boost makes the browser launch more quickly. Microsoft says "core" Microsoft Edge processes will run in the background and won't need more resources when you add additional Windows. This should, Microsoft says, make for far faster launching.

The second feature, "sleeping tabs" sounds like it will address a bigger issue in the browser market. It aims to boost performance of the browser by "freeing up system resources from unused tabs," including putting ads to sleep in background tabs. This month, Microsoft intends to enhance the feature to allow for up to 82% memory savings, per its internal testing using preview builds of the browser.

Since last year's Build, Microsoft has made more than 5,300 commits to the open-source Chromium project, so that other browsers using the project can also see improvements made to Edge. Microsoft has also added a Progressive Web Apps, or "PWAs" build on Edge to the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft Edge is taking on an increasingly important role as part of Windows 10. Microsoft is retiring Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, for most versions of the operating system. At Build, the company is pushing developers to transition away from IE11 websites and apps, though Edge's Internet Explorer mode is expected to last through at least 2029.

At Build, Microsoft will discuss the WebView2 embedded web control and Edge in a session about apps for hybrid work, while the Edge team will also have a session to take questions directly from attendees.

Other Windows-based announcements include the ability to use Windows Terminal as the default emulator, along with a "Quake mode" to open a new terminal with a keyboard shortcut. Additionally, there will be GUI app support on the Windows Subsystem for Linux. More will be announced at Build throughout the week. 

Software vendors got some bad news over the weekend. ZDNet reported that Chinese hackers demonstrated exploits in major browsers, common utilities and other apps during the Tianfu Cup hacking competition held in Chengdu.

China has officially "discouraged" security researchers from participating in hacking competitions outside the country since at least March 2018. Tianfu Cup gives those hackers a place to demonstrate their skills--and earn six-figure bounties for successful exploits--without risking the government's ire by competing abroad.

ZDNet reported that former Pwn2Own winner Team 360Vulcan earned $382,500 for hacking the old version of Microsoft Edge, Office 365, Adobe PDF Reader, qemu+Ubuntu and VMWare Workstation across the two days of competition. Some $200,000 of that came from the VMWare exploit; another $80,000 came from the qemu+Ubuntu exploit. The remaining $102,500 was split among the other apps.

Team 360Vulcan wasn't successful in all its attempts. An exploit targeting iOS that was supposed to close out the competition reportedly didn't go as planned. Both days of competition were a bit of a mixed bag, actually, with roughly half of the exploits working as intended (that's 13 of the planned 32 for the first day and seven of the planned 16 for the second day). Maybe there's solace to be found there.

Teams also demonstrated successful exploits in Chrome, Safari and the D-Link DIR-878 router during the Tianfu Cup's two-day competition. Earnings varied based on the severity of the vulnerability and the company that made the product. And don't worry, because the competition's organizers told ZDNet that all teams plan to reveal details about the exploited vulnerabilities to the affected companies after the event.

It would be easy to demonize events like this. Some of these products are used by hundreds of millions of people; undermining their security for sport might seem a bit strange. But these competitions help incentivize ongoing research into these products that companies then use to make them even more secure. It's better to have public displays of security exploits than to for them to be used secretly with malicious intent.

Microsoft is going for the hat trick. The company is planning to bring its new Edge browser to Linux for the first time, which Microsoft reportedly confirmed development of at its Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida this week. 

That means the company has made a lot of changes to Edge in a relatively short time. It announced last December that it planned to rebuild Edge around Chromium, the open source engine used by Google Chrome, in an effort to offer a more consistent browsing experience for people using Windows 10's bundled app.

Microsoft revealed more changes during the Build 2019 developer conference in May. The biggest browser-related revelation: Edge was going to make its way to macOS. That would mark the first time Microsoft offered its browser on Apple's platform since it stopped offering the Mac version of Internet Explorer in 2003.

We finally learned on Monday that Microsoft plans to release the new Edge for Windows and macOS on January 15, 2020. The release candidate browser is available now, so impatient people can use it ahead of its official release, but there's still a little over two months to go before Microsoft deems it ready.

Yet, it seems the company wasn't content to stop there. Windows Latest said that Microsoft isn't planning to release the Linux version of Edge on January 15--that would be a remarkably short time between revelation and release--and it didn't offer any specifics regarding that version of the browser's official launch date.

Windows Latest also shared an image from Microsoft's presentation explaining that the new Edge is available now for iOS and Android, available as a release candidate for "all supported versions of Windows" and macOS and will be available on Linux "in the future." Hopefully, it won't take another year-plus to introduce that version of Edge.

It's been almost 11 months since Microsoft announced that it would rebuild its Edge browser around the open source Chromium technology Google built for Chrome. Now the company has finally revealed that it plans to officially release this new version of Edge on January 15, 2020, provided development goes as expected.

Microsoft previously announced during the Build 2019 developer conference in May that it would release the Chromium-based Edge on macOS as well as Windows 10. It turns out Mac users will receive the same treatment as their PC-reliant counterparts; Microsoft said the new Edge for macOS will also debut on January 15.

It was at the Build 2019 developer conference that we learned Edge would also feature an Internet Explorer mode for viewing legacy sites as well as additional privacy settings. Microsoft expanded on the latter today by revealing that the new Edge will feature new tracking protections that are enabled by default. It said:

We believe you should know who has access to your data and have the control to choose what you share. Microsoft Edge starts with tracking prevention on by default, so you don’t have to take any actions to immediately start having a more private browsing experience. With SmartScreen and Tracking prevention, we help protect you from phishing schemes, malicious software and new types of malware like cryptojacking. Microsoft Edge and Bing also now offer new InPrivate mode across your entire web experience so your online searches and browsing are not attributed to you, offering you more control over your personal data.

We had a pretty good idea that  Microsoft was getting ready to release the new Edge. A stable release version of the browser was found on the company's servers in late October, so even though it wasn't officially released, anyone curious about the update could use it. (So long as they didn't mind losing the current version to do so.)

Microsoft said the release candidate for its new Edge browser is currently--and this time officially--available for both Windows 10 and macOS. The company also said the new Edge will support roughly 90 languages when it debuts in January. More information about both versions of Edge can be found on the company's website.

Internet Explorer has long been decried as the least security browser out there. With IE being deprecated, and with the new focus on the Edge browser in Windows 10, Microsoft plans to change all of that and make its browser one of the most secure around.

In a new blog post, Microsoft presented three main security problems on the Web and how it can use its new browser to protect users against them: trickery (for giving out sensitive information), hacking and memory corruption.

Defending Against Trickery

Passport

One of the most common ways for malicious hackers to steal data is to utilize phishing, or in other ways to dupe users into entering their logins and passwords in a fake website that looks like the one they intended to visit.

There are some ways to mitigate these attacks, such as having websites buy certification that shows the company's name in the address bar. This allows users to trust that the address they are visiting is indeed the one they were looking for. However, hackers can sometimes bypass this as well, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft has recently announced Passport, its passwordless authentication for the Web. It allows the user to log in to a website using either a PIN number (which only works with the chip inside your PC or mobile device) or a fingerprint or face scan (through Microsoft's local authentication protocol, Hello).

Smartscreen

Microsoft has had the Smartscreen malware protection Web filter since the introduction of Internet Explorer 8. It has now added it to both the Edge browser and the Windows 10 shell. The Smartscreen filters websites that Microsoft knows to be infected. It's a feature that both Chrome and Firefox have had for sometime as well. It's far from a magic bullet, but it adds a necessary layer of extra protection on the Web.

Certificate Reputation

"Certificate Reputation" is a feature Microsoft announced last year for IE11, and an extension of Smartscreen that verifies server certificates for authenticity. When users surf the Web in a browser that supports "Certificate Reputation" and have enabled the Smartscreen filter, Microsoft is fed with data about the sites' certificates. When a new certificate is issued by a different Certificate Authority for a certain website, Microsoft can automatically flag it.

This seems like a good idea because users don't have to do anything to protect themselves against forged certificates, and it's also quite scalable (unlike Google's Chrome certificate pinning, which only works with a handful of websites). The only problem here is that Microsoft may sometimes block the wrong certificates. The company does notify the site's owner about the flagged certificate, so this issue should be mitigated in large part.

Hopefully, we can also see Microsoft join Google and Mozilla in the Certificate Transparency system, as well. CT would just create a cleaner certificate system by default and may even improve the effectiveness of Microsoft's own Certificate Reputation system, because CT would make finding the "bad guys" much easier. Therefore, it should be a complementary rather than competing technology.

Modern Standards

Microsoft is committed to leaving all the Internet Explorer cruft behind and start new with strong support for modern Web standards. This should also increase the security of Edge by default, as it simplifies the code, which means there are fewer places in which security holes can exist.

Microsoft also plans to adopt two modern security standards for the Web: the Content Security Policy (CSP) and HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). The CSP allows web developers to whitelist certain types of content that web browsers can load on a given page, which could help prevent the all-too-common cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Defending Against Browser Hacking

No more toolbars, VB scripts or ActiveX

ActiveX has caused many great pains for the Internet Explorer developers, as it has likely been the most abused IE technology in history. The new Edge browser will do away with all the proprietary technologies that have weak security. Instead, Microsoft will adopt an HTML5/JS model for its browser extensions (which the company plans to launch after Windows 10 is released on the market).

Edge lives in a sandbox

Because the Edge browser is actually a store "app" and not a Win32 "program," as Internet Explorer is, that means Edge benefits from all the security features of Windows store apps, such as app sandboxing and cryptographic signing (ensuring the app you want to download has not been tampered with).

Microsoft will not just protect the whole browser with a sandbox, but every single web page will be opened in its own "app container." This could possibly make Edge's sandboxing even stronger than that of Chrome, as Chrome currently puts its pages or extensions in separate processes that aren't as secure as app containers.

Of course, this is because app containers haven't existed until now on Windows, and Google could now adopt them as well. However, Google would probably have to create a "different" Chrome on Windows 10 than the one on previous versions of Windows. With Microsoft wanting to move everyone to Windows 10 as quickly as possible, Google would have no reason to wait for the adoption of this model. The same goes for Mozilla, which has yet to deploy its own multi-process sandboxing model.

64-bit Security

Microsoft will make exploiting sensitive memory to attack the Edge browser much more difficult in Windows 10 by installing only a 64-bit version of Edge on all 64-bit capable machines (which should be all new PCs from the past decade or so). The ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) protection is exponentially stronger when the app is 64-bit, because the address space is much larger.

Defending Against Memory Corruption

MemGC

I've recently written about how Microsoft should implement EMET's security features by default in Windows 10. Memory corruption vulnerabilities that happen due to carelessly written C/C++ code are much too common for the status quo to be acceptable. Many attackers use them to craft zero-day exploits and bypass other Windows protections. EMET goes a long way to protect against that class of vulnerabilities.

Microsoft will not quite add EMET by default to Windows 10, but instead it will do what apparently looks like giving a garbage collector to C++ programs. Garbage collectors are used in some languages (such as Java) to protect against many memory corruption bugs. However, that usually comes with a cost in performance, which is why many developers still prefer writing C++ code.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft's MemGC garbage collector will have a significant impact on performance. If not, then it could be a big benefit to the security of many Windows apps and programs.

Control Flow Guard

The Control Flow Guard is a Visual Studio technology that makes it more difficult for an attacker to take advantage of memory corruption bugs. The technology has already been available for a year, but all of its safety features will work by default in the Edge browser.

Bug bounty program

Microsoft will be offering a "Windows 10 Technical Preview Browser Bug Bounty" program to entice security researchers to find and report bugs from Windows 10 and the Edge browser before Microsoft ships them to its users.

Microsoft seems to be quite committed to "getting it right" with its browser this time, and not fall behind the competition but actually lead the way in some areas. It's good to see that one of those areas is security.

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