Vertical Tabs and Tab Groups
Move the tab strip to a vertical layout along the left edge, making long lists of open pages readable at a glance, and group related tabs under labeled, color-coded headers you can collapse whenever they are not needed.
Microsoft Edge Beta
Pro VerifiedMicrosoft Edge Beta is the preview channel of Microsoft's Chromium-based browser, giving Windows, macOS, and Linux users an early look at upcoming features and fixes before they reach the stable release.
v156.0.4314.8 Windows
64-bit
Web Browsers
What Microsoft Edge Beta Is and Who It Is For
Microsoft Edge Beta is a pre-release build of the Edge browser that sits one step ahead of the stable version. It runs on Chromium, the same open-source engine behind Chrome, so it renders modern sites, supports Chrome extensions, and follows web standards consistently. Microsoft ships Beta updates on a regular schedule ahead of Stable, giving testers an early look at tab, security, and productivity changes before they reach everyone else. The channel installs alongside your everyday browser, keeps its own profile, and can be removed at any time. It suits web developers, IT administrators validating policy changes, and anyone wanting an early but polished preview. Of the three preview channels, Beta sits closest to release quality; Canary and Dev carry far more experimental code.
Beta holds a specific slot in the release train. Canary rebuilds daily, Dev updates weekly, and Beta refreshes more slowly, carrying features Microsoft has already shaken out once. That lag is the point: fewer bugs, yet testers still see functionality weeks before general availability. The installer has its own application identity on Windows and macOS, so Beta can sit beside Edge Stable without overwriting it; bookmarks, passwords, and history stay separate unless you sign in and sync. Feedback reaches the Edge team through the in-app Send feedback tool, and crash reports help triage regressions. Preview builds are a poor fit as a primary work browser, since policy support can trail Stable. People documenting their findings often polish those clips in OpenShot Video Editor.
Benefits of Using Microsoft Edge Beta
The main benefit of Microsoft Edge Beta is timing. You gain a working preview of features weeks before they arrive in Stable, which means you can adjust internal documentation, test web applications against a newer rendering engine, and flag compatibility problems while there is still time to act. For developers, that head start is measurable: layout regressions, script breakage, and changes to security defaults surface in Beta first, and fixing them early avoids an emergency scramble on release day. For IT teams, Beta offers a rehearsal space for policies and deployment scripts, so configuration gaps are found on a test machine instead of a fleet. Ordinary users get a fast browser with the same Chromium foundation, Chrome extension support, and Microsoft account sync they already rely on. The trade-off is acceptance of occasional rough edges, since the build is still in testing. Because stability is generally good, many people keep Beta permanently as a second browser dedicated to checking how new web features behave before rolling anything out broadly.
Microsoft Edge Beta Features
Collections for Research
Save pages, text snippets, images, and notes into named collections while browsing, then reopen, reorder, or export the whole set to Word and Excel without leaving the browser, losing your place, or retyping the same details by hand later.
Sleeping Tabs and Efficiency Mode
Automatically put unused background tabs to sleep to release memory and processor time, and switch on Efficiency mode to extend battery life on laptops, while pinned tabs, audio playback, and active downloads keep running normally so nothing you are using is interrupted.
Immersive Reader with Read Aloud
Strip ads, sidebars, and clutter from articles for a clean reading view, adjust text spacing, column width, and line focus for easier reading, and have pages read aloud in a natural voice while the app follows the highlighted text on screen.
Built-in PDF Reader and Markup
Open PDF files directly without a separate viewer, highlight and draw on documents, add text notes, fill in forms, and save annotations so review comments stay attached to the file instead of living in a separate export that loses context.
Copilot Sidebar and AI Help
Ask Copilot to summarize a long page, compare information across several open tabs, or draft text right in the sidebar, using page context to answer questions about what you are already reading without switching to another window or copying text.
Tracking Prevention and InPrivate Browsing
Block known trackers at one of three strictness levels, browse in InPrivate windows that clear history and cookies the moment they close, and rely on Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to warn you about phishing pages and risky downloads before they load.
Enterprise Policy Controls and IE Mode
Apply administrative policies through Group Policy or Intune, control updates, extensions, and telemetry from a single console, and load legacy intranet sites in IE mode so older internal business applications keep working inside a modern, fully supported browser.
Old Versions
Version
155.0.4283.33
Updated
October 2, 2026
Version
153.0.4234.19
Updated
—
Version
153.0.4234.13
Updated
—
Version
153.0.4234.8
Updated
—
Version
153.0.4234.6
Updated
—
Version
152.0.4191.51
Updated
—
Version
151.0.4129.59
Updated
—
Frequently Asked Questions About Microsoft Edge Beta
It is a preview build of Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser, released ahead of the stable version so testers, developers, and IT staff can try upcoming features and report problems before those changes reach everyone else.
No. On Windows and macOS it installs as a separate application with its own profile data, so it can run next to Edge Stable. Bookmarks, passwords, and history are not shared unless you sign in and turn on sync.
Beta refreshes on a scheduled cadence that stays ahead of the stable release, so new builds of Microsoft Edge Beta typically arrive every few weeks with feature changes, policy updates, and bug fixes bundled together.
It is the most stable of the preview channels, and many people use it daily. Still, it can carry rough edges, so keep a stable browser available for banking, work systems, and anything that must not break at the wrong moment.
Extensions from the Edge Add-ons store and the Chrome Web Store can be installed as usual. Signing in with a Microsoft account syncs favorites, passwords, and settings across devices, and you can import data from Chrome at any time.
Use the built-in Send feedback tool from the browser menu or the Help and feedback section, describe what happened, and optionally attach diagnostic data. The Edge team uses these reports, along with crash telemetry, to fix problems.
Yes. Removing the preview build from your operating system's installed programs leaves the stable browser and its profile untouched, so you return to the version you were already using.
Canary rebuilds daily, Dev updates about weekly, Beta releases ahead of Stable on a slower cadence, and Stable is the public version. Moving from Canary toward Stable means fewer new features and noticeably better reliability.
Comments
Comments are currently closed for this software.