For Windows 8 / 8.1 Also available for. MacOS Windows 10 Windows 7 Windows Server (2016 and above) Windows Server (2008 R2 to 2012 R2) Windows 10 X. Source code for portions of Microsoft Edge is available free of charge from https. While the Microsoft Edge browser is definitely a compelling upgrade to Internet Explorer in Windows 10, it's struggled against aggressive competition from Google, Apple, and Mozilla. Jan 31, 2021 You can download Microsoft Edge for Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10 and macOS. Furthermore, the browser is compatible with both Android 4.4 and later, as well as iOS 10.0 and later. MICROSOFT EDGE FOR WINDOWS DEVICES 1.1. 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. Get Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android. Skip to main content.
-->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
To begin automating tests, use the following steps to ensure that the WebDriver version you install matches your browser version.
Find your version of Microsoft Edge.
Navigate to
edge://settings/help.
Navigate to Microsoft Edge Driver.
Navigate to Get the latest version.
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).
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.
My Microsoft Edge beginners guide is intended to help you become proficient with Microsoft Edge quickly and easily, assuming no prior knowledge. Many people think they know how to use Microsoft Edge. But to really master Edge, you need to look just a tiny bit further. There’s stuff that you can do which will make your life easier and the good thing is: it’s really not hard to learn. You also don’t need a lot of time to figure it out. But if you set aside just a few minutes to look at the possibilities, you’ll win that time back many times over by working more efficiently.
The goal of this article is to give you an introduction to Microsoft Edge and an overview of the possibilities, along with the information you need to access the rest of my Microsoft Edge free tutorials.
You can start reading right here and at the bottom of this page you’ll find an easy-to-use signup form that you can use to sign up for the rest of my complete Microsoft Edge beginners guide. Don’t worry, it’s completely free. (Or you can look for the Microsoft Edge beginners guide articles on my website and simply follow the links, but that can be a little more overwhelming).
The new Microsoft Edge internet browser is the successor to Microsoft Internet Explorer and aims to be more than just a standard web browser. That’s why it pays off to take a deeper look into the features that are available to you.
With my Microsoft Edge beginners guide under your belt, soon you will be the one people will want to see in action to learn new computer tips and tricks that will save them time and make things easier.
Microsoft Edge Beginners Guide - Getting Started
So let’s get started with your Microsoft Edge beginners guide and find out more on how to launch (or open) Microsoft Edge. First, start Microsoft Edge by double-clicking the Microsoft Edge icon on your desktop or you can also click the Edge icon on your taskbar. (Please note that you only have to click once on icons in the Windows taskbar. A double-click might cause the program to open twice, in 2 separate windows, which can cause confusion).
Doing so will cause Microsoft Edge to launch and take up most or all space on your screen.
In the image below, you can see that Microsoft Edge takes up the entire desktop (full-screen mode) and that the controls in the upper right corner show the “restore down” help tip when hovered over with the mouse.
That means that Microsoft Edge is displayed in “full screen” or “maximized” mode and covers the entire area of the screen.
-- SIDEBAR --
The fullscreen mode of Microsoft Edge's window is not to be confused with Microsoft Edge fullscreen mode on itself (where the tabs and menu icons disappear to make more display space available for the actual content of the window). Microsoft Edge's predecessor, Internet Explorer, has a fullscreen toggle hotkey. Pressing F11 on your keyboard will do the trick for Internet Explorer to switch to fullscreen, but not so for Microsoft Edge. In order to toggle Microsoft Edge on and off fullscreen, you need to press the Windows key, SHIFT key and ENTER key simultaneously. Pressing that keyboard combination repeatedly will switch on and off Microsoft Edge fullscreen mode. With that said, let's continue the Microsoft Edge beginners guide.
-- END SIDEBAR --
You can switch to the “restored down” mode by clicking the restore down control in the upper right corner.
You will then see how the Microsoft Edge window shrinks to a smaller size, revealing part of your Windows desktop area, like in the image below.
Also note how the middle one of the three controls in the top right corner now shows a “maximize” help text when hovered over with the mouse.
You can toggle fullscreen mode on and off with this, but let’s continue on in fullscreen mode and proceed with the Microsoft Edge beginners guide. Let’s take a look at some of the features.
Finding Your Way Around in Microsoft Edge
The first page that Microsoft Edge will pull up when you open it is not an actual web page, but rather a customizable home page for you. It is split up into several sections, showing the latest news, the current weather in the area and the latest sports tickers.
In the Microsoft Edge window, you’ll notice the address bar, the search bar and also the customize gear icon.
If you click the customize gear icon, you’ll go to the customize section, where you can change the language (if you happen to be in an area with a different language). You can also switch on and off several information cards by clicking on the switches.
I see a lot of people who prefer to have Google as their Microsoft Edge start page rather than the customizable home page, so later on I’ll show you how to do that, but before we get to that, let’s also take a look at some of the other Microsoft Edge settings.
To access the settings in Microsoft Edge, click the three dots near the top right corner, scroll down to the bottom of the menu and click “settings”.
The first thing Microsoft Edge has in “settings” is about themes.
You can switch between light and dark, depending on your preference or how your eyes adjust (maybe at night you want to use a dark theme).
Another setting that you can toggle on and off by clicking the switch in Microsoft Edge’s settings is whether or not you want to display your favorites bar. I’ll talk more about using favorites further on, but here’s where to hide or show your Microsoft Edge favorites bar.
Microsoft Edge also offers you easy access to clearing your browsing data. You’ll find the button to clear your browsing history in Microsoft Edge right in the settings menu (see image below).
The text on the button to clear your browser data already gives away that you can choose what kind of internet history you want to wipe. The image below shows the different types of data that you can erase.
Microsoft Edge Problems
I’ll go more in depth about each specific option in separate articles, but for now I want to focus a little bit more on a higher-level view in this Microsoft Edge beginners guide, just so you can cover more ground.
If you scroll down a bit more in Microsoft Edge’s settings, you’ll also find a button that will take you to the more “advanced” settings.
Advanced settings in a Microsoft Edge beginners guide? Not to worry, let’s just take a quick look at them for now. The first thing you find here is a switch to toggle the “home button” on or off. The home button is the icon that looks like a little house in Microsoft Edge and is a button to take you straight back to Microsoft Edge’s start page.
Microsoft Edge 8.1 Download
A lot of people prefer to have the home button so they can quickly get to their start page, regardless what web page they’re currently looking at.
If you find your Microsoft Edge home button missing or your Microsoft Edge home button disappeared all of a sudden, this is where you need to look.
Other settings that you’ll find in the Microsoft Edge advanced settings include blocking popups, toggle Adobe Flash Player on or off, choose which sites open in apps and more, like shown in the image below.
Then, if you scroll down a bit more in the Microsoft Edge advanced settings, you’ll also find settings to save passwords, form entries and cards in Microsoft Edge, as well as a number of privacy settings and track requests.
As you can see, there’s a lot more to using Microsoft Edge than first meets the eye, and if you continue to scroll down in the advanced settings, there are some other interesting things like the options that control how your internet searches are carried out. This can have a huge impact on how efficient you will be when searching stuff on the web.
For that, I have a whole separate section available for free that explains exactly how to optimize your computer’s internet search behavior so you will get the results you want. Be sure to also follow my articles with more computer tips and tricks for searching on the internet with Microsoft Edge.
That concludes the general gist of the settings in Microsoft Edge.
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