Microsoft has made available the first preview of the next version of Microsoft Edge based on the Chromium engine developed by Google. The company made the announcement in Twitter (via ZDnet) and revealed that a build compiled to run natively on ARM64 has entered the Canary ring, and users can expect a more stable version to appear in the Developer and Beta channel in the coming weeks.
The news arrives days after a report revealed that Microsoft is planning to make the new version of Edge generally available on January 15, but without support for devices based on Qualcomm ARM processors, and until now, it was unclear when the native version of the browser was going to be available on an non-x86 platform.
Although the company isn’t saying when a stable version of the browser will be available for the Qualcomm architecture, it’s still a welcome news as Surface Pro X owners will at least be able to surf the internet with a pre-release version of the most advanced version of Edge.
Alongside this news, a new report from Neowin reveals that Microsoft is also developing an emulator to support 64-bit desktop apps on Qualcomm chips. At this time, users can run a limited number of 32-bit apps based on the Intel processor architecture, but it’s not possible to install 64-bit apps on the Surface Pro X, for example.
You can download the ARM64 version of Edge in the Canary ring at this Microsoft download site.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].