After what seems like an interminable wait, Microsoft has finally brought extensions to its Edge browser in Windows 10 – or at least the preview version of the OS.
The latest Redstone build, version 14291, has now been pushed out to testers on the Fast Ring, although in this build the revamped browser doesn’t have full support for extensions just yet. In fact, there are only three extensions available to try out at this point.
They are: Reddit Enhancement Suite (a collection of enhancements for browsing Reddit more effectively), Mouse Gestures and Microsoft Translator. The latter automatically translates web pages in over 50 different languages, according to Redmond.
The downside with these freshly revealed offerings is that they’ll have to be side-loaded, so support for extensions is in a pretty basic state right now. Still, Insiders will be able to get their first glimpse of what Edge will be like with these extras.
More polish will be applied soon enough, doubtless, and extensions will become available to install directly via the Windows Store.
More on the way
Microsoft also promised that more extensions are on the way, naturally enough. In a blog post, the company noted: “Later this year customers will find popular extensions from partners like AdBlock, Adblock Plus, Amazon, LastPass, Evernote and more.”
We’d also expect to see a Pinterest extension pop up before long, as in a leak last December, a Microsoft web page (that was swiftly pulled) contained spiel for a pair of extensions, namely Pinterest and the Reddit Enhancement Suite which we’ve seen emerge today.
Support for extensions has been a major missing part of the puzzle for the Edge browser, so it’s good to see this feature finally emerge, even if we’re still some way off from the final implementation.
Via: Slashgear
Source: techradar.com
Or Firefox it may not look as slick but it's better overall..
What's important to understand about Edge is that it is a Windows Universal App and that is both a pro and a con. As a con, it will only run on Windows unless MS builds a thin hyper layer for it to run on for other OSs. The plus comes from all the other Windows platforms such as XBox One, Surface Hub, Windows Phone, etc. It would allow you to run a full browsers with extensions, Flash, JS, etc. on a phone that you can dock to a monitor and keyboard and use as a micro PC. Your gaming console become more useful and could be the only PC in the house. And the soon released Surface Hub will be a game changer in the enterprise (my company has a pre-release one and its an unbelievably productive meeting room hub). And these are just the things we know about. Maybe HoloLens has Edge that you can launch virtually. The IoTs devices, etc.
I don't mind that MS has been taking their time to get things right…as they've been doing with extensions in Edge. Once they get it working well and released to the general user, I'll be more inclined to add Edge to my stable of browsers.
Until then, I'll continue to use Opera as my go-to browser and FF/Chrome as my back-ups.
Microsoft are always playing catch up with their browsers. Just use Chrome instead. It's so much better.
This was definitely the biggest bollock-drop for Microsoft with Windows 10 and Edge.
It's too little far, far too late. And that's a shame because otherwise Edge could have been a competent alternative to Chrome or Firefox. Right now it still feels very basic and unfinished in a lot of ways.
This won't be relevant for most until the Windows 10 Redstone updates ships to the Release channel.