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Test Microsoft's Chrome-like Edge browser for Windows 10

If you want to check out an early version of the reworked Edge browser, here's your chance.

Clifford Colby Managing Editor
Clifford is a managing editor at CNET, where he leads How-To coverage. He spent a handful of years at Peachpit Press, editing books on everything from the first iPhone to Python. He also worked at a handful of now-dead computer magazines, including MacWEEK and MacUser. Unrelated, he roots for the Oakland A's.
Expertise Tech from browser security to password managers and government programs from mail-in voting to federal assistance
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Microsoft said late last year it planned to swap out the rendering engine used in Edge and swap in one based on Chromium, the open-source foundation used in Google's Chrome browser as well as in Brave, Opera and other popular browsers.

If you've been waiting to see what Microsoft is up to with Edge, you can now download an early preview build of Edge for Windows 10. Microsoft notes that much of its work so far has been on the underpinnings of the browser. More visible changes, as well as broader support for extensions and the ability to manage your sign-in profile, will come over time, the company said. A MacOS version is also in the works.

Watch this: Microsoft bailing on Edge, Epic Games to launch a digital game store

The swap to Chromium, Microsoft said, will let Edge do a better job of conforming to web standards. The swap also means that one fewer browser is making a go of it outside of Google's open-source project: Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari are still standing, using their own home-grown browser engines.

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