Is Chromium Edge really gaining users

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Edge Chromium is at least a good default browser for Windows. But I am not convinced it will ever attract a lot of users to switch from Chrome or some other favorite. It used to be just about a web browser displaying web sites and web compatibility. But now since Google and Chrome came out, its been a lot more about ecosystem integration, syncing data, and this has been why browsers like Firefox have begun to fade. Sure some will like Edge’s Microsoft integration over Google’s,  but I am not convinced it will move the needle much in terms of browser usage.

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Is Chromium Edge really gaining users ? No.

There is the install base where Microsoft will force Chromium Edge installation via monthly update
on every Windows 10 PC (unlees you use the ‘block Edge’ tool).
Then there is user base which won’t gain more then IE11 did.

According to Netmarketshare Chrome has 68%, Firefox 8.2%, IE 6.7% and Edge 6.4%

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Alex5723 wrote:

(unlees you use the ‘block Edge’ tool).

For the audience who don’t know, where would one obtain this ‘block Edge’ tool?

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anonymous wrote:

For the audience who don’t know, where would one obtain this ‘block Edge’ tool?

I’m going to make a guess that @Alex5723 is referring to the Microsoft ‘Blocker Toolkit‘. Use this link for the direct download of the 175KB toolkit executable itself or this link to see the documentation.

Note: I used the toolkit and thought “what a complex method of carrying out what is, at the end of the day, a very simple addition to the registry”.

It’s far simpler to just:

1. *Right*-click on Start and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin).

2. Copy/paste the following one-liner into the PowerShell window then press the RETURN/ENTER key.

[microsoft.win32.registry]::SetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate", "DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium", 0x01)

3. Close the PowerShell window. That’s it.

This does *exactly* the same as 1) downloading and running the toolkit; 2) extracting the contents of the toolkit; 3) running a CMD file with a switch in an elevated command window, i.e. it creates the required registry entry to block the installation of Chredge, albeit without any bells and whistles.

Hope this helps…

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Hi John, Just saw your post. Funny cause i was going to ask same question you did because i clicked to go online yesterday and got a full screen pop up showing microsoft Chromium Edge with “Download now”. At first i was skeptical so i checked it out and it was Legit. Anyway i read that Chromium Edge is in many ways really just a knock off of google chrome in that Chromium Edge uses the same chrome engine to run it.I also read the other browsers our also following the Leader in that they see what google chrome does and mirrors that minus all the tracking google chrome is known for.But what Alex5723 posted is true,chrome does have almost 70% browser usage.

I also wonder if you install Chromium Edge and like me are still using windows 7 if it would function properly on 7 or would you get Nag alerts baked into Edge to upgrade to windows 10?

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Rick Corbett wrote:

Note: I used the toolkit and thought “what a complex method of carrying out what is, at the end of the day, a very simple addition to the registry”.

Many users may know about the Blocker Toolkit but may not know what a registry is or that they have one and surly won’t know what PowerShell is and how to use it.
It is easier to just run the “fix”.

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Alex5723 wrote:

It is easier to just run the “fix”.

If by ‘fix’ you mean the downloadable executable then just running it does nothing except pop up a GUI. If, however, by ‘fix’ you mean the ‘Executable blocker script’ then just running it does nothing either (even if you right-click on it and use ‘Run as administrator’)… and you have to get to it first.

Unless I’ve missed out a step the complete process is as follows:

1. Navigate online to the relevant Microsoft technical documentation page (which I provided a link to in order to save people from having to search).
2. Read the online documentation so you understand that at some point you are going to have to apply a switch to an ‘Executable blocker script’.
   [The article suggests that it will take 3 minutes to read but does not give step-by-step instructions what to do. Why would it… it’s technical documentation. As a result it assumes a level of technical knowledge that IMO most people just won’t have.]
3. Download the ‘fix’.
   (The MicrosoftEdgeChromiumBlockerToolkit.exe executable file. Note that if you just use the direct download link I provided then you won’t realise what you actually have to do with the ‘fix’.)
4. Navigate to where you downloaded the ‘fix’.
5. Run the ‘fix’ by double-clicking on it.
6. Agree to the (*very* lengthy) license terms displayed in the GUI.
   [Note that: a) you MUST agree to the license; and b) the wording of the GUI implies that clicking on the ‘Yes’ button will lead to an ‘install’… which is actually an ‘extract’.]
7. Type the location where you want the contents extracted to (or browse) then click on the ‘OK’ button to extract the contents of the ‘fix’ (remembering where you extracted the contents).
8. Right-click on Start and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) [or – for older versions of Windows 10 – Command Prompt (Admin)].
   [This will create an elevated command window (commandline or PowerShell). It *must* be elevated… a standard-level command window won’t work due to insufficient privileges.]
9. Within the elevated command window, navigate to where you extracted the contents of the ‘fix’.
   [This assumes you know the cd command and how to use it to traverse folders.]
10. Enter dir so you can see the filenames of the contents you extracted from the ‘fix’.
    [This assumes you know the dir command.]
11. Now you can see the filename of the ‘Executable blocker script’, run the script with the /B switch which you read about in the documentation.
    [The script file is EdgeChromium_Blocker.cmd.)
12. Close the elevated command window.

If you think that that is ‘easier’ than the 3-step ‘start-to-finish’ process I described as a simpler alternative then – sorry – I disagree with you. 🙂

I note that Microsoft *could* have created a ‘fix’ aimed at end-users, i.e. a simple standalone executable that self-elevates and provides a simple GUI with ‘Block/Unblock’ buttons… but chose not to. Go figure… 🙂

 

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Elly

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I actually switched from FireFox to Edge. The Spartan one is awful, the new one is good enough not to bother with installing FF. I just wish MS finally made a decent e-mail app, Outlook Express was about everything I need and with good layout, too…

Windows 10 Mail app is a joke.

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mrj2k

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mrj2k wrote:
I also wonder if you install Chromium Edge and like me are still using windows 7 if it would function properly on 7 or would you get Nag alerts baked into Edge to upgrade to windows 10?

I’m still on Win7 and have been using new Edge since beta (thanks b, joep517 for suggestions/recommendations), and now have installed it as default browser on more than a dozen Win7 boxes with no nag alerts or other issues. (Hilariously, the only nags I’ve noticed when using Edge are the never-ending “switch-to-chrome” nags displayed by google whenever someone has the audacity to visit google’s search engine using a non-chrome browser!)

Bottom line: I like new Edge. It’s safer and more compatible than IE11, and somewhat reduces the obvious privacy concerns associated with google’s greedy gobbling up of all the bits…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet

Hope this helps.

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mrj2k, b

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anonymous thanks for your post #2262860. Helpful to know that if i decide to install chromium Edge on my windows 7 desktop there should not be issues. I used to think that Edge being created for windows 10 would have compatibility issues if installed on a windows 7 machine but if you did it on more than a dozen Win 7 boxes my thinking was wrong.

But I do read alot of reports saying chromium edge is nothing more than a copycat or imitation of google chrome in that microsoft uses the same rendering engine as Google Chrome but with some enhancements developed by Microsoft.So i guess it’s almost like your still using google chrome minus some privacy concerns and Less cpu usage with edge.

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mrj2k wrote:

But I do read alot of reports saying chromium edge is nothing more than a copycat or imitation of google chrome in that microsoft uses the same rendering engine as Google Chrome but with some enhancements developed by Microsoft.

That true and Microsoft now manufactures/sells Android smartphones as well.
Next you know Windows 10 will move to ChromeOS.

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mrj2k

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mrj2k wrote:
But I do read alot of reports saying chromium edge is nothing more than a copycat or imitation of google chrome in that microsoft uses the same rendering engine

Yes, it’s certainly true that new Edge uses the same rendering engine as Chrome. Both Chrome and new Edge (“ChrEdge”) browsers are based on the Chromium open-source browser project…

https://www.chromium.org/Home

And, like Google, Microsoft now contributes code back “upstream” to the Chromium project…

https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-chrome-users-you-can-thank-microsoft-for-this-new-feature/

In addition to Google’s and Microsoft’s offerings, there are _many_ other browsers also based on the Chromium project…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)

And (ignoring discussion of technology dominance vs diversity, and what might be “best” for the Internet/users) there are some obvious reasons for that…

https://www.maketecheasier.com/why-so-many-chromium-based-browsers/

Hope this helps.

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mrj2k

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anonymous,
Thanks for taking the time to post very informative information w/Links.
Learning alot about Chrome vs Chromium.

mrj2k

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We have started using Edge on four of our home computers. My wife prefers Edge, and I saw no harm in using it, so that is what is on the four computers.

* Two of our computers are connected to our two TVs, allowing us to do video streaming from the internet on the TVs. Both have Windows 10, and both have Edge. I was using IE, but some sites are beginning to disallow IE for streaming their videos. (I believe that Amazon Prime and Netflix are two such sites.) It was either Firefox or Edge, and so I installed the latest version of both. We always use Edge to stream videos on the TVs.

* We have a Windows 8.1 laptop and a Windows 8.1 virtual machine. I installed Edge on both, and that’s what we always use for browsing the web.

On my Linux machines, I use Firefox, Opera, or Vivaldi. If Edge were available for Linux Mint, it would be my second choice of browsers, with Firefox (with NoScript) being my first choice.

I will never use Google Chrome unless I have no choice. I do not want Google looking over my shoulder and taking notes all the time I am surfing the web.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

On my Linux machines, I use Firefox, Opera, or Vivaldi. If Edge were available for Linux Mint, it would be my second choice of browsers, with Firefox (with NoScript) being my first choice.

That’s interesting. What makes Edge a better choice for you (if a Linux version existed) than Vivaldi or Opera, or any of the many other Chromium derivatives?  I understand your avoidance of Google, and share it, but there are a lot of other de-googled Chromium variants.

Personally, I find Vivaldi the most compelling among the Chromium variants, as it is the only Chromium variant that has a classic menu bar and many other such UI features. I find the hamburger menu’d Chrome UI (and the default Firefox UI that copies it) to be just awful, and in the very little use I’ve had of the older, non-Chromium Edge, it seemed that it had a dead ringer for the Chrome UI too.

I’d give Edge a try if there was a Linux version, but I have my doubts I’d like it if it looks anything like Chrome.

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Cybertooth

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I always run NoScript with Firefox. Because of this, some websites simply don’t work correctly if at all when I browse to them with Firefox. This is the key reason why I have an alternate browser or two.

I have Vivaldi on my Linux Mint laptop. I wanted to install Opera or Brave, but I couldn’t find how to install it through the standard installer, but I did find Vivaldi, so I installed it instead of either of those. (I am hesitant to install something directly as opposed to through the standard installer, because I don’t want to have half my programs installed in different ways; it’s hard to keep track of it all when I do that.)

I use Vivaldi to stream a particular radio station; but whenever I do, it takes up so many resources that nothing else will run on my laptop. (This may not be a problem for much longer, because I will be upgrading my laptop from 4GB to 8GB of RAM in about a week.)

I like Edge because, quite frankly, I trust Microsoft more than other companies with regard to spying issues. Microsoft makes its money off of sales and service (i.e. the old-fashioned way), whereas it seems that everyone else makes their money off of monetizing my personal information. Also, I haven’t had any complaints about the current version of Edge (I did have some about the first release of Edge).

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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As MS ‘likes’ Linux now, maybe there will be an Edge Linux, there is aLinux Chrome no??

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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There isn’t yet a Linux Edge – when I go to the Edge website on one of my Mint computers, it tells you that. However, there is an iOS Edge. Since my wife likes Edge, I have been suggesting to her that she install Edge on her iPhone. If she does, I’ll report back about the experience of using Edge on an iPhone.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

We have started using Edge on four of our home computers. My wife prefers Edge, and I saw no harm in using it, so that is what is on the four computers.

Malware extensions arrived to ChrEdge

Microsoft removed malicious extensions from its Edge Extensions Store

I have installed ChrEdge on my Windows 10 . The reason ? Installed in order to remove the buggy classic Edge, that like IE has hooks into Windows 10 OS.

My default browser is Chrome (and not a copycat browser) and second opinion is Portable Firefox ESR.

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Alex5723 wrote:

My default browser is Chrome (and not a copycat browser) and second opinion is Portable Firefox ESR.

Firefox is the first browser that springs to mind when I think of Chrome copycats.  Mozilla’s been trying to follow the Chrome design parameters (feature set, UI, etc.) for years, unfortunately.  I don’t know about Safari, but the old Edge looked a lot like Chromium too when I last saw it.  Until Chromium/Chrome came along with its famous minimal UI to “make it feel fast,” as Google put it (how a sparse UI does that is anyone’s guess), browsers looked pretty different, but now, they all seem to be Chrome clones in appearance.

The look of Firefox prior to Project Become Chrome (/sarc) is still the way I make Waterfox and Firefox look now, much the same as I consider the best UI ever to come out of Redmond to be that of Windows 2000 (which is still the basis of how I configure my Linux UI).  That was back when usability with a discrete pointing device (mouse/touchpad) was king, not trendy minimalism or appearances that are more about recognizable branding than any concern for utility.

Chrome, like the new Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, etc., is a derivative of Chromium. The other Chromium-based browsers aren’t copies of Chrome as much as they are siblings, as they are also derivatives of Chromium. Chromium itself is the “original,” so to speak, at least structurally (if not in Google’s eventual plans for it).

I don’t know if there is a straight Chromium built for Windows, but Chromium builds for Linux are everywhere.

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Alex5723 wrote:

Malware extensions arrived to ChrEdge

Microsoft removed malicious extensions from its Edge Extensions Store

Firefox and Chrome too:

ATTENTION! Check if you were affected by malware clones

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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Alex5723 wrote:
Malware extensions arrived to ChrEdge

Yes, much like malware extensions have arrived in the Chrome store for years. Fortunately, like Microsoft, Google removes malicious extensions when they find them…

https://www.ghacks.net/2018/05/11/googles-bad-track-record-of-malicious-chrome-extensions-continues/

But it obviously remains very important for all users to carefully consider and vet the extensions they choose to add to their preferred browsers…

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/11/06/how-to-determine-if-a-google-chrome-extension-is-safe-or-not/

Hope this helps.

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wavy wrote:

As MS ‘likes’ Linux now, maybe there will be an Edge Linux, there is aLinux Chrome no??

It’s Official: Microsoft Edge is Coming to Linux

https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/79341?source=sessions (~8.24 min)

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MrJimPhelps, Cybertooth

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