Here's how to change your home page in the new Microsoft Edge: Open Microsoft Edge, select Settings and more Settings. Select Appearance. Turn on Show home button. You can either choose New tab page or select Enter URL for a page that you want to use as your home page. Note: This topic is for the new Microsoft Edge. Chromebooks are built to run Google Chrome, but with the addition of Linux, you can install other browsers on your Chromebook including Microsoft Edge.Whether you want to try what Microsoft’s browser has to offer or are fed up with Chrome, here’s how to install Edge on Chrome OS.
As of Wednesday, January 15, Microsoft will make the non-beta version of its new, Chromium-based version of the Edge browser to Windows 10 Home and Pro users. We covered the beta version of Chromium-based Edge in November. The beta was still pretty raw then—but 'raw' is a relative term. The new Edge project began with a complete and fully functional Web browser—Chromium—so it worked fine for browsing the Web. There were just a few rough edges as far as installing extensions, logging into them, and the like.We've seen one take waxing nostalgic for the old, purely Microsoft developed version of Edge, but we don't think many people will miss it much. It's not so much that Edge was a bad browser, per se—it just didn't serve much of a purpose. Edge didn't have the breadth of extensions or the user-base enthusiasm of Chrome or Firefox—and it was no better than they are at running crusty old 'Internet Explorer Only' websites and Web apps.
While there is some validity to worrying about one company 'controlling the Web' and one of Google's biggest competitors now becoming a Google downstream, we don't think those concerns add up to much. We don't want to see the full-on Google Chrome become any more indispensable than it already is—but we don't think Microsoft trading in its own fully proprietary, closed-source HTML-rendering engine for one of the two biggest open source rendering engines is a bad thing.
We downloaded the final beta version of Chromium-based Edge—the one available on the afternoon of the 14th, one day before the official launch—and took it for a spin in a Windows 10 virtual machine. Mostly, it still just looks like a slightly plainer version of Chrome—which isn't a bad thing! Sites load snappily, UI elements are familiar, and so forth. One of the biggest obvious improvements since the last time we test-drove Chromium Edge is the ability to install extensions from the official Chrome Web store.
AdvertisementMicrosoft's own Web store is still extremely sparse—we went looking for the must-have, EFF-developed HTTPS Everywhere, and instead we got a recommendation for 'NBC Sports'—which does not seem well-loved by its users. However, typing 'chrome Web store' in the address/search bar took us right where we needed to go and presented us with an obvious tool-tip for installing third-party extensions. That was that—HTTPS Everywhere installed with a single click, just as you'd expect it to on Chromium or Google Chrome itself.
Chromium-based Edge is still missing a couple of obvious features to compete with the full Google Chrome experience—most notably, browser history and extensions don't sync between devices yet. This is described as a temporary problem in the 'Known Issues' page, and it may even be fixed already in the production version launching today.
Pushing the new Edge as something to look forward to right now is difficult—we suspect most people who really care about their browser will continue using Chrome, Firefox, or whatever less-well-known variant they've found and learned to love. Meanwhile, the people who have actually been actively using Edge likely won't notice much of a change—unless Microsoft bobbles something in the user data import functionality when they push the official, non-beta version out through Windows Update later this month.
In all likelihood, the change absolutely will improve the lives of the folks who 'just click the blue E' in the long run, though. It will likely make it easier for Microsoft to lure more technical users—who demand feature and extension parity but might be interested in Edge's Azure authentication back-end—away from Google Chrome.
This article initially stated that Chromium-based Edge was being pushed over Windows Update beginning on the 15th; a Microsoft representative reached out to correct us: it was only available for download beginning on the 15th, and will not be pushed over Windows Update until later this month. The article has been updated accordingly.
Windows 10 comes with a brand new web browser called Microsoft Edge. It's got a lighter design, it's blazing fast and Cortana is baked right into it.
Edge washes away everything we hated about Internet Explorer, but how does it compare to Google Chrome, the world's most-used web browser?
See also: Windows 10 review: A needed upgrade with missing pieces
We pitted Edge against Chrome (version 44.0.2403.89m) on an HP Spectre x360 laptop with a 2.2GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, and ran a series of benchmark tests to see if Microsoft's new web browser is faster or at least on par with Chrome.
Each web browser was tested as new, meaning Chrome didn't have any extensions to slow it down and the history and cache were reset on each browser after every trial.
Two important things to note: Chrome does come with Adobe Flash pre-installed. We didn't disable it during our benchmark tests as that's the state it would be downloaded in by a normal user.
All tests were performed three times and then the average taken.
Futuremark Peacekeeper
Peacekeeper is a JavaScript benchmark that runs through a number of tests from rendering capabilities, to HTML5, to Document Object Model operations (an API used to create dynamic websites) and text parsing. You can find all of the nerdy details about the tests here.
The higher the Peacekeeper score is, the better overall performance the browser is.
Microsoft Edge | Google Chrome | |
|---|---|---|
Trial 1 | 2563 | 3917 |
Trial 2 | 2551 | 3915 |
Trial 3 | 2461 | 3920 |
Average | 2525 | 3917 |
Microsoft Edge Download
As you can see in the benchmark scores above, Chrome smokes Edge in speed and overall performance.
Winner: Google Chrome
SunSpider JavaScript
SunSpider is another JavaScript benchmark, but unlike Peackeeper, it only tests JS and none of the other stuff. Developed by Apple's WebKit team in 2007, it's a commonly used benchmark to compare web browsers as it takes into account features like encryption. You can learn more about the specifics of SS here.
Which Is Better Chrome Or Microsoft Edge
We used the latest 1.0.2 version and here are the results (lower is better):
Microsoft Edge | Google Chrome | |
|---|---|---|
Trial 1 | 105.4ms | 255.8ms |
Trial 2 | 102.3ms | 276.2ms |
Trial 3 | 102.7ms | 270.2ms |
Average | 103.5ms | 267.4ms |
In this test, Edge beats Chrome with an average of 103.5ms, showing it's more equipped to tackle 'real performance problems that developers have encountered' (how SunSpider describes its test).
Winner: Microsoft Edge
V8 Benchmark Suite - Version 7
Google developed its own JavaScript benchmark to test JS performance for Chrome (because Internet, presumably). You can find details on the test here.
Generally it favors Chrome, but let's see how well Edge performs with it. The higher the score, the better.
Microsoft Edge | Google Chrome | |
|---|---|---|
Trial 1 | 21554 | 23376 |
Trial 2 | 22381 | 23791 |
Trial 3 | 21566 | 23657 |
Average | 21834 | 23608 |
Once again, Google Chrome comes out on top, but not by much.
Winner: Google Chrome
Real-world speed
The benchmarks above provide a good picture of how web browsers compare with one another, but they're far from the only metrics that matter. In my non-synthetic 'real life-tests,' I loaded Mashable.com, NewYorkTimes.com and Facebook.com, and then timed the two. These were the results:
Mashable.com | Microsoft Edge | Google Chrome |
|---|---|---|
Trial 1 | 5.33 seconds | 4.56 seconds |
Trial 2 | 5.75 seconds | 5.10 seconds |
Trial 3 | 5.31 seconds | 4.86 seconds |
Average | 5.46 seconds | 4.84 seconds |
NewYorkTimes.com | Microsoft Edge | Google Chrome |
|---|---|---|
Trial 1 | 5.85 seconds | 5.68 seconds |
Trial 2 | 5.41 seconds | 5.40 seconds |
Trial 3 | 5.69 seconds | 5.53 seconds |
Average | 5.65 seconds | 5.53 seconds |
Facebook.com | Microsoft Edge | Google Chrome |
|---|---|---|
Trial 1 | 3.23 seconds | 3.31 seconds |
Trial 2 | 3.63 seconds | 3.22 seconds |
Trial 3 | 3.38 seconds | 3.29 seconds |
Average | 3.41 seconds | 3.27 seconds |
Google Chrome just barely edges out Microsoft Edge, but you probably won't notice the difference in real life.
Winner: Google Chrome
Google Chrome is still king, but...
So what did we learn? Well, Google Chrome is faster than Microsoft Edge, but...only if you don't have any extras like extensions installed. When you add those in, Chrome slows down to a crawl.
Edge is no slouch, though. It's a very capable browser and after testing it out, I really like it a lot. If Internet Explorer left a bad taste in your mouth, you'll be happy to hear that Edge is a complete reset in the best way possible.
Extensions are coming to Edge and that could — and almost certainly will — slow its performance down, but right now it's nothing but a great start for Windows 10.
BONUS: Windows 10: The Review