Edge Chromium Windows 8.1

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Notwithstanding above Section 1.1 as applied to Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, the terms of the applicable Windows License Terms, or any Windows update settings you have configured, the Software periodically checks for updates, and downloads and installs them for you.

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  • The new Chromium based Microsoft Edge is supported on all versions of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server (2016 and above), Windows Server (2008 R2 to 2012 R2), and macOS. You can choose to Allow, Block, or Limit audio and video media to play automatically on sites opened in new tabs in Microsoft Edge.
  • Jan 15, 2020 To clear the browsing data to resolve issues on the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge, use these steps: Open Microsoft Edge. Click the Settings and more (three-dotted) button from the top-right.

Edge Chromium Windows Update

WebDriver allows developers to create automated tests that simulate user interaction. WebDriver tests and simulations differ from JavaScript unit tests in the following ways.

  • Accesses functionality and information not available to JavaScript running in browsers.
  • Simulates user events or OS-level events more accurately.
  • Manages multiple windows, tabs, and webpages in a single test session.
  • Runs multiple sessions of Microsoft Edge on a specific machine.

The following section describes how to get started with WebDriver for Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

Install Microsoft Edge (Chromium)

Ensure you install Microsoft Edge (Chromium). To confirm that you have Microsoft Edge (Chromium) installed, navigate to edge://settings/help, and verify the version number is version 75 or later.

Download Microsoft Edge Driver

Edge Chromium Windows 8.1

To begin automating tests, use the following steps to ensure that the WebDriver version you install matches your browser version.

  1. Find your version of Microsoft Edge.

    1. Navigate to edge://settings/help.

  2. Navigate to Microsoft Edge Driver.

  3. Navigate to Get the latest version.

  4. Choose the build of channel that matches your version number of Microsoft Edge.

    The Get the latest version section on the Microsoft Edge Driver webpage

Choose a WebDriver language binding

The last component you must download is a language-specific client driver to translate your code (Python, Java, C#, Ruby, JavaScript) into commands the Microsoft Edge Driver runs in Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

Download the WebDriver language binding of your choice. The Microsoft Edge team recommends Selenium 4.00-alpha07 or later, because it supports Microsoft Edge (Chromium). However, you may control Microsoft Edge (Chromium) in all older versions of Selenium, including the current stable Selenium 3 release.

Important

If you previously automated or tested Microsoft Edge (Chromium) using ChromeDriver and ChromeOptions classes, your WebDriver code does not run on Microsoft Edge Version 80 or later. To solve the problem, update your tests to use the EdgeOptions class and download Microsoft Edge Driver.

Use Selenium 3

If you already use Selenium 3, you may have existing browser tests and want to add coverage for Microsoft Edge (Chromium) without changing your version of Selenium. To use Selenium 3 to write automated tests for both Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML) and Microsoft Edge (Chromium), install the Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge package to use the updated driver. The EdgeDriver and EdgeDriverService classes included in the tools are fully compatible with the built-in equivalents in Selenium 4.

Use the following steps to add the Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge and Selenium 3 to your project.

Add the Microsoft.Edge.SeleniumTools and Selenium.WebDriver packages to your .NET project using the NuGet CLI or Visual Studio.

Use pip to install the msedge-selenium-tools and selenium packages.

If your Java project uses Maven, copy and paste the following dependency to your pom.xml file to add msedge-selenium-tools-java.

The Java package is also available to download directly on the Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge Releases page.

Use npm to install the edge-selenium-tools and selenium-webdriver packages.

Automate Microsoft Edge (Chromium) with WebDriver

To automate a browser using WebDriver, you must first start a WebDriver session using your preferred WebDriver language binding. A session is a single running instance of a browser controlled using WebDriver commands. Start a WebDriver session to launch a new browser instance. The launched browser instance remains open until you close the WebDriver session.

The following content walks you through using Selenium to start a WebDriver session with Microsoft Edge (Chromium). You may run the examples using either Selenium 3 or 4. To use with Selenium 3, the Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge package must be installed.

Automate Microsoft Edge (Chromium)

Selenium uses the EdgeDriver class to manage a Microsoft Edge (Chromium) session. To start a session and automate Microsoft Edge (Chromium), create a new EdgeDriver object and pass it an EdgeOptions object with the UseChromium property set to true.

The EdgeDriver class only supports Microsoft Edge (Chromium), and doesn't support Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML). For basic usage, you may create an EdgeDriver without providing EdgeOptions.

Note

If your IT admin has set the DeveloperToolsAvailability policy to 2, Microsoft Edge Driver is blocked from driving Microsoft Edge (Chromium), because the driver uses the Microsoft Edge DevTools. Ensure the DeveloperToolsAvailability policy is set to 0 or 1 to automate Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

Choose Specific Browser Binaries (Chromium-Only)

You may start a WebDriver session with specific Microsoft Edge (Chromium) binaries. For example, you may run tests using the Microsoft Edge preview channels such as Microsoft Edge Beta.

Customize the Microsoft Edge Driver Service

When you use the EdgeOptions class to create an EdgeDriver class instance, it creates and launches the appropriate EdgeDriverService class for either Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML) or Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

If you want to create an EdgeDriverService, use the CreateChromiumService() method to create one configured for Microsoft Edge (Chromium). The CreateChromiumService() method is useful when you need to add customizations. For example, the following code starts verbose log output.

Note

You do not need to provide the EdgeOptions object when you pass EdgeDriverService to the EdgeDriver instance. The EdgeDriver class uses the default options for either Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML) or Microsoft Edge (Chromium) based on the service you provide.
However, if you want to provide both EdgeDriverService and EdgeOptions classes, ensure that both are configured for the same version of Microsoft Edge. For example, you may use a default Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML) EdgeDriverService class and Chromium properties in the EdgeOptions class. The EdgeDriver class throws an error to prevent using different versions.

When you use Python, the Edge object creates and manages the EdgeService. To configure the EdgeService, pass extra arguments to the Edge object as indicated in the following code.

Use the createDefaultService() method to create an EdgeDriverService configured for Microsoft Edge (Chromium). Use Java system properties to customize driver services in Java. For example, the following code uses the 'webdriver.edge.verboseLogging' property to turn on verbose log output.

When you use JavaScript, create and configure a Service with the ServiceBuilder class. Optionally, you may pass the Service object to the Driver object, which starts (and stops) the service for you.
To configure the Service, run another method in the ServiceBuilder class before you use the build() method. Then pass the service as a parameter in the Driver.createSession() method.

Use Chromium-Specific Options

If you set the UseChromium property to true, you may use the EdgeOptions class to access the same Chromium-specific properties and methods that are used when you automate other Chromium browsers.

Note

If the UseChromium property is set to true, you are not able to use properties and methods for Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML).

Chromium Windows Download

Other WebDriver installation options

Chocolatey

If you use Chocolatey as your package manager, run the following command to install the Microsoft Edge Driver.

For more information, navigate to Selenium Chromium Edge Driver on Chocolatey.

Docker

If you use Docker, run the following command to download a pre-configured image with Microsoft Edge (Chromium) and Microsoft Edge Driver pre-installed.

For more information, navigate to the msedgedriver container on Docker Hub.

Next steps

For more information about WebDriver and how to write automated WebDriver tests using Selenium, navigate to the Selenium documentation.

Getting in touch with the Microsoft Edge DevTools team

The Microsoft Edge team is eager to hear your feedback about using WebDriver, Selenium, and Microsoft Edge. To send the team your questions and comments, choose the Send Feedback icon in the Microsoft Edge DevTools or send a tweet @EdgeDevTools.

April’s Patch Tuesday brings us several, security-related, Microsoft Office updates and some small changes in UX and accessibility. In addition, Microsoft has also announced the much-needed retirement of the “legacy”, non-Chromium-based Edge Browser. The changes will come into effect at 10:00 PST. The decision to remove EdgeHTLML, by actively replacing it with Chromium, following the March end-of-support Edge announcement. At the same, Microsoft has encouraged organizations and consumers to upgrade to the latest Edge version.

April Patch Tuesday Highlights

On the 6th of April, Microsoft has pushed the KB4486672 update for Office Standard 2016, Office Professional 2016, Office Professional Plus 2016, Office Home and Business 2016, and Office Home and Student 2016.

As Askwoody’s MS-DEFCON columnists pointed out, Office 2016 was the only EOS MS product to receive an update. We would like to remind the users that Microsoft officially ended mainstream support for the 2016 business and home versions of Office on the 13th of October 2016. End of Support is scheduled for the 14th of October 2025. As expected, the vendor encourages all clients running any of the above-mentioned products to deploy the update as soon as possible.

So far, there’s just one issue associated with the KB4486672 deployment. Some users (i.e., Microsoft has yet to disclose if the issue predominantly affects home or enterprise end-users) might experience Office application stability or non-responsiveness issues. Microsoft stated that the problem lies in the registry code writing process and proposes the following fix:

  • Download the KB4486672 update manually and execute the .msi pack. Alternatively, you can use Microsoft’s Update Center to automatically download and deploy the pack.
  • Run Regedit.msc with administrative rights.
  • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0General.
  • Find the value EnableAdvancedRegistryHangDetection.
  • Set value type to DWORD and Value data to 1. Save changes.

Note: if you are unable to locate the General key in 16.0, you will need to create one. When you’re done, define EnableAdvancedRegistryHangDetection under General by right-clicking on the right panel, highlighting new, and left-clicking on the DWORD button.

As mentioned in the intro, Patch Tuesday also delivers several UX and accessibility improvements. To name a few, as of the April roll, Microsoft fixed an issue with the zoom function that appears when a user utilizes the Microsoft Edge IE Mode on a multi-mon high DPI setup.

In addition, MS also fixed a minor HDR-related issue that made the display appear darker. Some child account-related issues were patched – users are now notified when a child account defined in the Family Safety section attains andor requests administrative privileges. Last, but not least, Microsoft also fixed an OneDrive syncing issue that caused the endpoint to stop working if the user would delete files or folders currently in use by OneDrive.

Edge’s anticipated retirement will impact most Windows 10 versions, from build 1803, released in April 2018, all the way to the 20H2 build. Microsoft’s decision to discontinue support for Microsoft Edge and replace the EdgeHTML rendering engine with the Chromium, open-source project, is a sound one and should facilitate the web development process as well as eliminating any disparities in web compatibility. Chromium updates will not impact users running Windows 7, Windows 8.0, or Windows 8.1.

Additional Security Tips

Download Edge Chromium Windows 8.1

We always encourage our readers and customers to deploy every security and non-related security update in a timely manner. Here are some other things you can try in order to increase your overall security.

#1. Ensure that all Edge related updates are deployed correctly when using a private WSUS server.

To enforce the update all across your endpoint network, make sure that the new Edge version has been added to your WSUS catalog. Please refer to Microsoft’s Edge Management for additional information and instruction on how to deploy Edge with WSUS.

#2. Use legitimate means to deploy security updates.

Only download and install Windows Updates from known and legit sources like MS’s Update Center or MS’s official website. If you receive emails urging you to install critical Windows updates, please disregard and delete the email. Clicking on any of the links enclosed in such messages could lead to debilitating virus infections or even ransomware.

Heimdal™ Security recommends a safe and automatic updating and patching solution to prevent these fraudulent attempts. Patch & Asset Management is your one-stop, fully automated updating and patching toolbox that empowers you to download, install, and configure any 3rd party, MS, or updates for proprietary software.

#3. Restore points.

Before deploying the new updates, don’t forget to create restore points. No major issues have been reported so far, but better safe than sorry. Creating a restore point is easy and can save you from a lot of trouble if something goes wrong during an update.

Edge Chromium Windows 8.1 64-bit

Parting thoughts

Microsoft Edge Chromium Windows 7

Edge is dead, long live, well, Edge. April’s patching bout isn’t as ‘meaty’ as the one in March, but still crucial to your endpoint’s wellbeing. As always, stay safe, subscribe to Heimdal’s newsletter for more cybersecurity awesomeness, and shot me an email if you have any more questions.

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