Microsoft Updates the Edge Beta channel to build 85.0.564.18 (changelog)

Microsoft has released an update for the Edge Beta channel. The Edge Beta channel is a preview channel that is updated only every 6 weeks and is considered to be the most stable preview channel, only releasing features well tested in the Canary and Dev version of the browser. The last major release was on the 2nd June.

Today’s release takes the build to version 85.0.564.18 and brings the following improvements:

Feature updates

• On-premise synchronization of Favorites and Settings. Now you synchronize browser favourites and settings between Active Directory profiles within your own environment without the need for cloud sync.
• Internet Explorer mode update.
  • Microsoft Edge group policy support for trusting site + app combos to launch without a confirmation prompt. Group policy support added that lets administrators add site + app combos that are trusted to launch without the confirmation prompt. This adds the ability for administrators to configure trusted protocol/origin combinations (such as Microsoft 365 apps) for their end-users to suppress the confirmation prompt when navigating to a URL that contains an app protocol.
• PDF Highlighter tool. This tool can be added to the toolbar for PDFs to easily highlight important text.
• The Storage Access API is available. The Storage Access API allows access to first-party storage in a third-party context when a user has provided a direct intent to allow storage that would otherwise be blocked by the browser’s current configuration. For more information, see Storage Access API.
• Send to OneNote is available for Microsoft Edge Collections. Everyone’s excited to be able to send the information they’ve gathered in Collections to OneNote, where they can append it to a larger project and collaborate with others! And even more importantly, in Microsoft Edge 85, you’ll be able send content to Office for Mac products (Word, Excel, and OneNote) for both MSA and Azure Active Directory.
• DevTools updates. For details about the following updates, see What’s New In DevTools (Microsoft Edge 85).
  • Microsoft Edge DevTools supports Surface Duo emulation. The Microsoft Edge DevTools can emulate the Surface Duo so you can test how your web content will look on dual-screen devices. To turn on this experiment in DevTools, enter Device Mode by pressing Ctrl+Shift+M on Windows or Command+Shift+M on macOS, and then select Surface Duo from the device drop-down list.
  • Microsoft Edge DevTools lets you match keyboard shortcuts to VS Code. The Microsoft Edge DevTools supports customizing keyboard shortcuts in the DevTools to match your editor/IDE. In Microsoft Edge 85, we are adding the ability to match DevTools keyboard shortcuts to VS Code. This change will help increase productively across VS Code and DevTools.

Policy updates

New policies

Thirteen new policies were added. Download the updated Administrative Templates from the Microsoft Edge Enterprise landing page. The following new policies were added.

• AutoLaunchProtocolsFromOrigins – Define a list of protocols that can launch an external application from listed origins without prompting the user.
• AutoOpenAllowedForURLs – URLs where AutoOpenFileTypes can apply.
• AutoOpenFileTypes – List of file types that should be automatically opened on download.
• DefaultSearchProviderContextMenuAccessAllowed – Allow default search provider context menu search access.
• EnableSha1ForLocalAnchors – Allow certificates signed using SHA-1 when issued by local trust anchors.
• ExemptDomainFileTypePairsFromFileTypeDownloadWarnings – Disable download file type extension-based warnings for specified file types on domains.
• IntensiveWakeUpThrottlingEnabled – Control the IntensiveWakeUpThrottling feature.
• NewTabPagePrerenderEnabled – Enable preload of the new tab page for faster rendering.
• NewTabPageSearchBox – Configure the new tab page search box experience.
• PasswordMonitorAllowed – Allow users to be alerted if their passwords are found to be unsafe.
• RoamingProfileSupportEnabled – Enable using roaming copies for Microsoft Edge profile data.
• RoamingProfileLocation – Set the roaming profile directory.
• TLSCipherSuiteDenyList – Specify the TLS cipher suites to disable.

Obsoleted policies

• EnableDomainActionsDownload – Enable Domain Actions Download from Microsoft.
• WebComponentsV0Enabled – Re-enable Web Components v0 API until M84.
• WebDriverOverridesIncompatiblePolicies– Allow WebDriver to Override Incompatible Policies.

Edge Beta can be downloaded at Microsoft here.