back to article Microsoft pushes us closer to the Edge: Test new web browser now in free Windows 10 VMs

Microsoft is offering free downloads of Windows 10 virtual machines so people can test Edge, the web browser bundled with the new OS. The software giant provides VMs for Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP right the way through to IE 11 on Windows 8.1. Now it's produced VM images for Windows 10, complete with Edge, the Internet …

  1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Good to see

    While I think IE6, etc, were abominations at least MS is trying to do the right thing and get rid of some of the legacy crap. OK, that causes problems for some who drank the MS kool-aid all those years ago, but time move on and hopefully MS do.

    But no, I don't think the W10 grab of your privates is OK...

  2. Khaptain Silver badge

    Stepped back

    After two weeks of Edge I have now stepped back, or to the side at least, and made Chrome my default browser.

    I have no idea why certain reviews state that Edge is fast, for me it is not, Chrome is at least twice as fast when opening any page. I have absolutely no "widgets", plugins or whatever to disturb the process.

    My install was an upgrade rather than a clean install, shoudl that make a difference I do not knwo, I have also ensured that no cache is being trailed from anywhere.

    But if one things distrubs me more than any other, it is that damned hidden address/search bar because it uses the same color scheme as the title bar, before it is clicked, it essentially remains invisible and one has to force oneself to know where to click.....aaaaagggghhhhh..... Visual is everything in a GUI....

    There are also a lot of other PITAs, such as saving a page, I dont want a share button, I don't want to annotate, I would like a status bar....I do not like the way detach a tab.....

    Grumble grumble, so now I have defaulted to Chrome ... Horses for courses and all that

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Stepped back

      Have a UV for bothering to describe why you do or don't like something - discussion forums are supposed to be about reasoned opinion. The DV that it offsets was probably kneejerk.

      1. garetht t

        Re: Stepped back

        https://www.google.com/search?q=uv+dv&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

        nope - still no idea what on earth you're on about. Perhaps you should link a CS for the BS TLAs?

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: Stepped back

          @Gareth

          UV = Up Vote

          DV = Down Vote

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Stepped back

        The DVs are probably from alien slashtard invaders who don't realize that downvoting stuff around here does nothing to bury it. ;)

        I'll withhold judgement as I haven't tried Win10 yet, which I will now that these VMs are out.

    2. Gis Bun

      Re: Stepped back

      So you can tell the difference if Chrome opens up in 0.05 seconds and Edge in 0.1 seconds? Boy. You're good.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: Stepped back

        @Gis Bunt

        I will ask you a question in return, if the difference had been so small do you really honestly believe that I would have written anything ?

        I use one of my own sites as my home page, as I have done for several years and I become very accustomed to the speed at which it typically opens up on IE, Chrome and now Edge.

        If I stated that Edge takes twice as long, I think it would be reasonable to assume that we are not timing in 10ths or 100ths of a second. The difference is so blatant that even the pedantic and mentally challenged would have no problem stating the difference.

  3. Ol'Peculier
    Thumb Up

    I'm more interested in how 10 works with IIS and all the various stuff that we load on top of that on our local dev machines, so this will be getting a download this week.

  4. gwmap
    Pint

    Big Deal

    I suppose as developers we're supposed to be all grateful that we can try out Edge in a VM, but if Microsoft doesn't provide Edge to our users on Windows 7 then we're still stuck making our content work in IE11 for the duration of the Windows 7 lifetime, just as we had to with XP and IE8.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: Big Deal

      Patience.

      Ours is a waiting game now.

      Vista failed miserably, and look how fast MS followed with Windows 7, which is what Vista should have been.

      Let's see how this 1 0 malarky floats. I'm betting that The Cloud is not going to do it any good. If 1 0 fails as miserably as it should, then maybe we'll get a proper version 11 in two years time that will actually be worth it.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: Big Deal

        Personally I do not use the "cloudy" feautures but I presume that the great unwashed will :

        a : be very unaware of just how much cloudy stuff that will actually be using without knowing it.

        b : have no idea how to switch it all off, ( there are a lot of tucked away switches to switch off)...

        c : simply get used to it and accept it.

        The Apple crowd already use a lot of iCloud , I can only presume that the MS crowd will also become accustomed to it. although not by choice more by attrition.

        I am very much for the cloud IF and only IF I can see what is being held, in a readable/modifiable format.....unlike the dark unreachable box solution that is currently in use... I loke that fact that my contacts et al follow me around when I change phones but I do not like the fact that I cannot see how much other information is currently being held or that I have any real control over it ( other than to remain disconnected)...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Close to the Edge

    {with apologies to Yes} Emphasis mine

    Sad courage claimed the victims standing still for all to see

    As armoured movers took approached to overlook the sea

    There since the cord, the license, or the reasons we understood will be

    Sudden cause shouldn't take away the startled memory

    All in all, the journey takes you all the way

    As apart from any reality that you've ever seen and known

    Guessing problems only to deceive the mention

    How many millions do we deceive each day?

    Will it tip us 'over the edge'?

  6. Phuq Witt
    Flame

    Does Edge....

    ...come with an abject and grovelling apology from Microsoft for all the misery and wall-headbutting frustration its predecessor caused to generations of web developers over the years?

    Because it bloody well should!

  7. Thecowking

    At first I was

    Surprised at how modern the headline was. After all I was only listening to Hybrid Theory in university. So it can't be that long ago.

    Then I realised exactly how long ago it was.

    Now I feel old.

    Completely unrelated to the article but I felt the need to whine.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I tried IE12... i mean edge

    and I didn't like it because it was just IE with a new coat of paint.

    So I went back to Chrome. Which was disappointing since Chrome is losing it's edge.

  9. Your alien overlord - fear me

    For everyone who complains about how slow it is, find and use Lynx. That'll show you how fast things should be displayed.

    What? You want graphics and pretty stuff as well? Hmmm, something about cake and eating it.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does anything actually work in Edge yet?

  11. Pink Duck

    Waiting for version 1

    Edge still feels like an under development browser. It currently breaks our major work web portals unlike any other browser out there, even with feature detection and sane browser sniffing where utterly necessary. An irritating one for me is client-side XSLT outputting Document instead of XmlDocument from a transform to XML.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    T&Cs

    "Thank you for downloading Microsoft Edge, a trading style of Microsoft Internet Explorer 10, itself the lipstick on the foetid old pig that is Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.

    Please wait whilst we tunnel effortlessly out of our own VM, then wait longer whilst we upload your contacts, emails, photos and calendars to Microsoft. Do not switch off your PC, make any new friends, send or photo anything, or book any sort of appointment until this is done and you become part of our 'user experience telemetry database'.

    Microsoft Edge does not guarantee to render anything more complex than the bold tag properly, but it does promise to send every little thing you type in anywhere straight to our servers."

    No thanks, I'll pass.

  13. Nelbert Noggins

    One of the biggest problems with Edge for me is the removal of the Tracking Protection that was in IE and no plugin available to replace it.

    Webpages explode in a mass of adverts and crap I'd forgotten how bad it was to not have an ad-blocker of some sort running. On my Win 10 work machine I've stopped using Edge because of the lack of ad-blocking. When I need IE it's IE 11 I use.

  14. rgloeckner
    Thumb Up

    tried to download that thing, but they cut off the connection all the time. after all I had success by downloading it in parts with many, many retries, imported it in VM Workstation and here we go... live on the EDGE. Regards

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