Microsoft plans to rebuild Edge on Chromium, so it will eventually display sites as Chrome does. Nothing changes yet. The bigger testing problem remains Internet Explorer 11, still used on many older office computers.

What Microsoft announced

On Thursday, Microsoft announced that Edge, the browser built into Windows 10, will be rebuilt on Chromium, the open-source project that Chrome is made from.

Edge itself continues. Microsoft said the new version will be offered on every supported version of Windows, which includes Windows 7 and 8.1, updated more often than now, and that it expects to bring it to the Mac.

A preview is expected early next year. Until the new version arrives, the Edge people use today carries on unchanged.

So nothing changes on anybody's computer this week. What changes is the outlook for testing websites.

The reasons Microsoft gave

Microsoft said the aim was better compatibility for people using Edge, and less fragmentation for the people who build websites, who would have one fewer engine to allow for.

It also said it would contribute to Chromium itself, so that its own improvements reach other browsers built on the same project.

For a small business, the practical meaning is simple: in time, fewer sites that work properly in Chrome will misbehave in Edge.

What a browser engine does

Every browser has an engine: the part that reads a page's code and draws it on the screen. Two browsers built on the same engine draw pages almost identically.

The fifth is the odd one out. It receives security fixes but no new abilities, so it cannot understand much of the code newer websites are built with, and this announcement does nothing for it.

What the change means for testing

Each engine reads code slightly differently, which is why a careful developer checks a site in several browsers before launch.

Once the new Edge replaces the current one, a site that works in Chrome will almost certainly work in Edge too. One engine drops out of the list.

That will take time. Edge on Windows 10 updates along with Windows itself, offices update slowly, and the current version will be on many desks well into next year.

Until then, keep testing in the current Edge. It is not going anywhere this month.

What it does not change

Phones are unaffected. Every browser on an iPhone, Chrome included, uses Apple's engine, so testing in Chrome on a computer says nothing about iPhone visitors.

Screen sizes matter as much as engines. Many of the layout problems small business sites have come from a narrow phone screen rather than a particular browser.

And Internet Explorer stays exactly where it is.

Internet Explorer is the bigger problem

Internet Explorer 11 is still the default browser on many older office computers, particularly those running Windows 7, which Microsoft supports until January 14, 2020.

Some offices keep it deliberately, because an internal system or a supplier's portal only works in it. Staff then use it for everything, including your website.

It does not properly support newer layout methods or newer kinds of JavaScript. A page built with them can lose its layout, and worse, a form can look normal and refuse to send.

Nothing in Thursday's announcement changes those computers.

A worked example

A sign language interpreting service books interpreters for medical appointments, meetings, courses and interviews. Most requests arrive through a form on its website, from clinics, offices, colleges and Deaf clients themselves.

Last spring the form was rebuilt with a date and time picker and several steps, using newer code. Requests from some regular clients quietly stopped arriving.

The service found out when a clinic's office manager phoned to ask why the form's button did nothing. Her computer ran Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7, and the form's script used code it could not run.

No error appeared. The button simply did not respond, and nobody at the service could see that it was happening.

Whoever maintains the site rewrote the script in a form Internet Explorer understands, added plain date and time fields as a fallback, and put the phone number and email address beneath the form.

The form is now tested in Internet Explorer 11 before any change to it goes live.

Who still uses Internet Explorer

It depends heavily on who your customers are, and your own figures are the only reliable answer.

Sites selling to other businesses, to clinics and schools, or to older customers on home computers bought years ago tend to see more of it. A store whose buyers shop on phones may see almost none.

Analytics reports visitors by browser and version. Look at the past year, and at the visitors who sent forms or placed orders, not only at the total.

How far to support it

Supporting Internet Explorer 11 does not mean making a site look identical in it. It means the pages can be read and the things that earn money work.

A plainer layout, no animation and simpler menus are all acceptable. A form that does not send, a checkout that stalls or a booking button that does nothing are not.

Testing it is easier than it sounds. Microsoft offers free, time-limited test copies of Windows with Internet Explorer for exactly this purpose, so nobody needs to keep an old computer in a cupboard.

The counter-case

For a site whose figures show almost no Internet Explorer visitors, and none who send forms or buy, a careful check once or twice a year may be enough.

The Edge announcement itself requires nothing from anyone this month, and no site needs changing because of it.

But for a business whose customers sit at office desks, the browser to worry about is the old one, not the new one.

This week

  1. Change nothing because of the announcement.
  2. Check browser figures in Analytics.
  3. Look at who sends forms from Internet Explorer.
  4. Send a test enquiry using Internet Explorer 11.
  5. Try the checkout or booking there too.
  6. Keep testing the current Edge for now.
  7. Ask regular clients which browser they use.

Step four is the one most likely to find a real problem. A form that fails in Internet Explorer fails silently, and the people it fails are rarely the ones who phone to say so.

The other large release from last Thursday is covered in WordPress 5.0 is out and can wait a few weeks.

Frequently asked questions

What did Microsoft announce about Edge?

That Edge will be rebuilt on Chromium, the engine Chrome uses, and offered on all supported versions of Windows, with the Mac expected to follow and a preview early next year.

Does anything change on my computer now?

No. The Edge people use today carries on unchanged until the new version arrives, and no website needs changing because of the announcement.

Will this make testing websites easier?

Eventually. Once the new Edge replaces the current one, a site that works in Chrome will almost certainly work in Edge. Until then, keep testing both.

Why is Internet Explorer still a problem?

It remains on many older office computers and cannot run much of the code newer sites use, so layouts break and forms can silently refuse to send.

How do I know if my visitors use it?

Analytics reports visitors by browser and version. Check the past year, and especially the visitors who sent forms or placed orders, rather than total visits alone.

Must the site look identical in Internet Explorer?

No. A plainer layout is acceptable. What matters is that pages can be read and that forms, bookings and checkouts work, tested in Internet Explorer 11 itself.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Customers on old office computers?

Tell us which forms matter most. We will test them in Internet Explorer 11 and fix whatever fails.

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