Microsoft released the stable version of its Chromium-based Edge browser to the public earlier this year. Like any other browser (not including Internet Explorer), users had to go out of their way. Microsoft’s new Edge browser is coming, ready or not. Starting Wednesday, Microsoft will begin pushing it out to Windows 10 PCs, a complete revamp built on the Chromium technology of Google Chrome. Chromium Edge is a version of Microsoft Edge that's built on Chromium instead of Microsoft's own web browser technology. Microsoft takes code from the open source Chromium project, adds its own features and user interface, and releases it as Microsoft Edge. Other browsers, like Chrome and Brave, are developed using this same method.
-->When you install Microsoft Edge, you get a browser. Also, you get a powerful way to inspect, debug, and even create web projects. The Developer Tools shipped with the browser are based on the tools in the Chromium open-source project, so you may already be familiar with the tools. To keep descriptions shorter in this article, the Microsoft Edge Developer Tools are now referred to as DevTools .
Use DevTools to review and learn more about the following development tasks.
- Inspect and change the current webpage live in the browser.
- Emulate how your product behaves on different devices and simulate a mobile environment complete with different network conditions.
- Inspect, tweak, and change the styles of elements in the webpage using live tools with a visual interface.
- Debug your JavaScript using breakpoint debugging and with the live console.
- Find accessibility, performance, compatibility, and security issues in your products and learn how to use DevTools to fix each.
- Inspect the network traffic and review the location of the problems.
- Inspect where the browser stored content in various formats.
- Evaluate the performance of your product to find memory problems and rendering issues.
- Use a development environment to sync changes in DevTools with the file system and override files from the web.
And a lot more. It all starts when you open DevTools and customize each tool to your needs.
Open the DevTools
Best free audio software for mac. To open and explore the DevTools, use one any of the following actions.
- Hover on any element on the webpage, open the contextual menu (right-click), and then choose Inspect. This action opens the Elements tool.
- Select
F12. - Select
Ctrl+Shift+Ion Windows/Linux orCommand+Option+Ion macOS.
There are two main ways to interact with the DevTools.
- Use the mouse
- Keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts provide a quick way to access functionality and are needed for accessibility. The Microsoft Edge DevTools team works hard to make all the tools available using the keyboard and assistive technologies such as screen readers. For more information about how to open the different features in the DevTools, navigate to Microsoft Edge DevTools keyboard shortcuts.
Dock the DevTools in your browser

When you open the DevTools, it docks to the left of your browser. To change the docked location of the DevTools, complete the following actions.
- Choose the Customize And Control DevTools (
..) button. - To the right of Placement of the DevTools relative to the page (Dock side), choose a Dock side option.
For more information, navigate to Change Microsoft Edge DevTools placement (Undock, Dock To Bottom, Dock To Left).
In Dock side, choose any of the following layout options.
- Undock into separate window. Helps you work with several monitors or if you need to work on a full screen app.
- Dock to left or Dock to right. Helps you keep the DevTools side by side with your web product, and is excellent when you emulate mobile devices. The Dock to left and Dock to right options work best with high-resolution displays. For more information about emulation devices, navigate to Emulate mobile devices in Microsoft Edge DevTools.
- Dock to bottom. Helps you when you do not have enough horizontal display space, or you want to debug long text in the DOM or Console.
Learn about the core tools
DevTools give you an amazing amount of power to inspect, debug, and change the web product currently displayed in the browser. Most of the tools display the changes live. Live updates make the tools incredibly useful to refine the appearance and navigation or functionality of a web project without the need to refresh or build it. The DevTools also allow you to change web-based third-party products on your computer.
DevTools grew over a period of several years. You may assume that DevTools are difficult to learn when you first open any of tools. The following text quickly introduces the different parts. The main toolbar offers you a few sections and the sections are ordered from left to right.
The Inspect Tool allows you to choose an element on the current webpage. After you activate it, you may move your mouse over different parts of the webpage to get detailed information about the element and a color overlay to display dimensions, padding, and margin.
The Device Emulation tool displays the current web product in an emulated device mode. The Device Emulation tool allows you to run and test how your product reacts when you resize the browser. It also gives you an estimation of the layout and behavior on a mobile device.
The Tools tab group is a group of tabs that represent different tools that are used in different scenarios. You may customize each of the tools and each tool may change based on the context. To open a dropdown menu of more tools, choose the More tabs (
>>) button. Each of the tools is introduced later in the following section. Ipad mac os.Next to the Tools tab group are optional error and issues shortcuts. The shortcuts display when JavaScript errors or issues occur on the current webpage. The Open Console to view # errors, # warnings (JavaScript Errors) button displays a red circle with an
Xfollowed by the number of JavaScript errors. To open the Console and learn about the error, choose the JavaScript Errors button. The Open Issues to view # issues (Issues) button is a blue message icon followed by the number of issues. To open the Issues tool, choose Issues button.The Settings button displays a gear icon. To open DevTools Settings webpage, choose the Settings button. The Settings webpage displays a menu to change Preferences, turn on Experiments, and much more.
The Send Feedback button displays torso with a chat bubble next to it. To open the Send Feedback dialog, choose the Send Feedback button. The Send Feedback dialog allows you to enter information to describe what happened and automatically includes a screenshot. Use it to connect with the DevTools team to report problems, issues, or suggest ideas.
The Customize and control Devtools (
..) button opens a dropdown menu. It allows you to define where to dock the DevTools, search, open different tools, and much more.

In the Tools tab group, you may open the different tools that are available in the DevTools. The following list describes the most commonly used tools in the DevTools.
- Welcome. Includes information about the new features of DevTools, how to contact the team, and provides information about certain features.
- Elements. Allows you to edit or inspect HTML and CSS. You may edit both in the tool and display the changes live in the browser.
- Console. Allows you to display and filter log messages. Log messages are automated logs of the browser like network requests and developer-generated logs. You may also run JavaScript directly in the Console in the context of the current window or frame.
- Sources. A code editor and JavaScript debugger. You may edit projects, maintain snippets, and debug your current project.
- Network. Allows you to monitor and inspect requests or responses from the network and browser cache. You may filter requests and responses to fit your needs and simulate different network conditions. Other specialized tools are also available, such as Performance, Memory, Application, Security, and Audits.
Power tip: Use the command menu
The DevTools provides lots of features and functionality to use with your web product. Access the different parts of the DevTools in many ways, but the fastest way to access the features you need is to use the command menu. For more information, navigate to Run commands with the Microsoft Edge DevTools Command menu. To open the command menu, complete one of the following actions.
- Select
Control+Shift+P(Windows, Linux) orCommand+Shift+P(macOS). - Choose Customize And Control DevTools (
..), and then choose Run Command.
The command menu allows you to type commands to display, hide, or run features in the DevTools. With the command menu open, enter the word changes, and then choose Drawer Show Changes. The Changes tool opens which is useful when you edit CSS, but is difficult to find in the DevTools UI.
Customize the DevTools
DevTools are customizable to meet your needs or the way you work. To change settings, complete one of the following actions.
- Choose Settings (the gear icon on the top right)
- Select
F1or?.
In the Preferences section, you may change several parts of the DevTools. For example, you may use the Match the browser language setting to use the same language in the DevTools that is use in your browser. For another example, use the Theme setting to change the theme of the DevTools.
You may also change the settings of advanced features including the following features.
Workspaces.
Filter library code with the Ignore List.
Define the Devices you want to include in the device simulation and test mode. For more information, navigate to Emulate mobile devices in Microsoft Edge DevTools.
Choose a network Throttling profile.
Define simulated Locations.
Customize keyboard shortcuts. To use the same shortcuts in the DevTools as Visual Studio Code, complete the following actions.
- Choose Match shortcuts from preset.
- Choose Visual Studio Code.
Try experimental features
The DevTools team provides new features as experiments in the DevTools. To get the full list of experiments, navigate to the DevTools Settings, and then choose Experiments. You may turn each of the experiments on or off. Help decide which one of the experiments is valuable to you. For more information on the experiments, navigate to Experimental features.
Getting in touch with the Microsoft Edge DevTools team
Use the following options to discuss the new features and changes in the post, or anything else related to DevTools.
- Send your feedback using the Send Feedback icon or select
Alt+Shift+I(Windows, Linux) orOption+Shift+I(macOS) in DevTools. - Tweet at @EdgeDevTools.
- Submit a suggestion to The Web We Want.
- To file bugs about this article, use the following Feedback section.
If you want to preview the latest features coming to the DevTools, download Microsoft Edge Canary, which builds nightly.
See also
Join Transform 2021 this July 12-16. Register for the AI event of the year.
Right on schedule, Microsoft today launched its new Edge browser based on Google’s Chromium open source project. You can download Chromium Edge now for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and macOS directly from microsoft.com/edge in more than 90 languages. This is Edge 79 stable, for those who like tracking version numbers. Edge 80 is slated to arrive in early February, and afterwards Microsoft will stick to a six-week cadence for stable releases, just like with Chrome.

Microsoft has yet to lay out which features will ship in Edge 80, Edge 81, and so on. When asked what to expect from the next few Edge releases, a spokesperson said developers and users should use the beta releases as an indication. If you want to peek at the pipeline, download one of the Edge Insider Channels: Beta (updated every six weeks), Dev (updated weekly), or Canary (updated daily). Insider builds can be installed side by side with Edge stable. Update: Microsoft has published a support article that lists features in the works and requests that are not currently on the roadmap.
It’s worth noting that the new Microsoft Edge, as Microsoft is calling it, has a fresh logo. For the first time in decades, Microsoft’s browser is not denoted with a blue “e” — the logo is a wave, presumably for “surfing” the web.
Today’s debut has been a long time coming. Back in December 2018, Microsoft embraced Chromium for Edge development on the desktop. In April 2019, Microsoft released the first Chromium Edge builds (daily Canary and weekly Dev channels), and the Chromium Edge Beta channel followed in August 2019. In November 2019, Microsoft launched the Chromium Edge release candidate and positioned Edge and Bing as “the browser and search engine for business.” Microsoft today shared that the Insider builds have gotten “millions” of downloads. Now we’ll see if the stable release can get traction.
Features and performance
Microsoft plans to ship more consumer Edge features later this year, but this launch is largely targeted at businesses. That means AAD support, Internet Explorer mode, and Microsoft Search in Bing integration. Business and education IT administrators can download offline packages and policies for Chromium Edge. Many businesses already use Chrome and at least one Microsoft browser (Internet Explorer and/or Edge) — Microsoft is hoping these features will get them to switch to using just Chromium Edge.
Business features aside, there’s also support for Chrome-based extensions, 4K streaming, Dolby audio, inking in PDF, and privacy tools. For the last one, it’s worth noting that tracking prevention is on by default and offers three levels of control, like Firefox’s tracking protection.
Chrome extension support is probably the most important feature for most users. By default, extensions that have been ported over to Edge can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store. Chromium Edge also has an option to “Allow extensions from other stores” to get Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
There are still a few features missing from Chromium Edge, most notably history sync and extension sync. Microsoft is working on these and some other inking functionality that it still wants to port from legacy Edge, as Microsoft is calling it.
Microsoft also claims that Chromium Edge is twice as fast as legacy Edge. Curiously, the team isn’t making any claims against other browsers — at least not yet. In fact, our own testing shows Chromium Edge has solid performance.
The bigger picture here is that by leaning on Chromium, Microsoft no longer has to worry about “fixing” its underlying browser engine EdgeHTML. The company can instead improve Chromium itself, which helps all browsers that use the codebase, not just Chromium Edge. Microsoft says over the past year it has made more than 1,900 contributions to Chromium across areas like accessibility, touch, speech, and digital inking.
On the flip side, Edge is now just another Chromium-based browser. That makes it all the harder to offer a differentiated experience. Having failed with EdgeHTML, Microsoft figures Chromium is worth a shot.
Installing the new Edge: Manual or Automatic
If you’re running Windows 10 and don’t install Edge manually, you’ll eventually get it in a future update. Microsoft plans to start rolling out the new Edge “in the coming weeks,” starting with a subset of Windows Insiders in the Release Preview ring. The process will ramp up to more users “over the next several months.” It will be made gradually available on Windows Update and offered to additional devices “as data and feedback indicate that users are having a good experience.” Microsoft currently has no plans to automatically upgrade Managed, Enterprise, Education, or Workstation Pro Edition devices (documentation). If you want to block automatic delivery of the new Edge to Home and Pro devices, you can do so either via policies or the Blocker Toolkit.
When you install the new Edge on Windows 10, it will replace legacy Edge. Any shortcuts you have on the desktop, taskbar, or Start Menu will be updated to new Edge. The executable for legacy Edge is technically hidden, but it will be removed eventually. Your favorites, passwords, form fill information, and basic settings will carry over from legacy Edge to new Edge automatically. If you have Chrome or Firefox installed, new Edge will ask if you want to import those settings from there. Web apps built on EdgeHTML and Edge preview channels will continue to work without interruption. Depending on how up-to-date your Windows 10 installation is, you may be asked to install additional updates. A future version of Windows 10 will skip all this and include new Edge by default.
When you install new Edge on Windows 7, Windows 8, and macOS, it will work just like installing any other browser. New Edge will not replace whatever you have as the default (whether that’s Internet Explorer, Safari, or a third-party browser). Yesterday, Microsoft ended support for Windows 7, so it’s notable the company is still releasing new Edge for the decade-old operating system. It shows just how big Windows 7 still is — about one in four computers run it.
On Android and iOS, new Edge will replace old Edge automatically. That said, not much is new on mobile — Edge already uses Blink/Chromium on Android and WebKit/WKWebView on iOS. But you can expect the new logo, similar user interface to the desktop versions, and tracking prevention on iOS (coming soon to Android). More desktop features will make their way to Android and iOS over time.
Lastly, Microsoft’s FastTrack and App Assure programs cover Chromium Edge. The former means Microsoft will help you deploy Edge to your organization at no extra charge with an eligible subscription to Microsoft 365, Azure, or Dynamics 365. The latter means if your sites work in Internet Explorer 8 and above, Chrome, or legacy Edge, then they’ll work on the new Edge. If not, Microsoft will help you fix them at no additional cost.
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