Edge is now based on the open source Chromium browser, which is the underpinning of Google Chrome and several other, lesser-known browsers as well. The new Edge isn't entirely-or even mostly, so far-a Microsoft effort, though. It wasn't necessarily a bad browser, but it never really took off-by the time Edge became a thing, most of the people who cared about their browsers were so sick and tired of Internet Explorer they'd long since moved on to either Firefox or Chrome and the people who didn't care much about their browsers frequently ended up finding the old Internet Explorer and setting it as their default when they discovered that 'the big blue E' on their taskbar didn't work with legacy IE-only websites and apps. The old Microsoft Edge was a completely in-house Microsoft design, proprietary from the ground up.

Cue the jokes now about 'the new browser everyone uses to download Chrome'-but we're not sure that so many people will actually bother downloading Chrome anymore. Further Reading Goodbye Microsoft Edge, welcome Microsoft (Chromium) EdgeBefore much longer, every new Windows PC is going to have a new default browser: it will still be named Microsoft Edge, but it's a completely different browser than the old version.

New microsoft edge browser