I’ve switched to Microsoft Edge on my Windows PC and am wondering if there’s an easy way to check if I’m running the latest version every day or two?
With the endless waves of malware poised to attack PCs if the slightest chink can be found in the digital armor of your device, you’re wise to be aware of updates and versions. Seems like a hundred years ago we could all just blithely wait until the quarterly software update was released to change anything, but nowadays there are updates almost daily updates. I know that whenever I start up a PC I haven’t used for even just a few days the first thing I do is to “check for updates”.
Given all that, how hard is it to check to see what version of Microsoft Edge you’re running and whether there’s an update? Turns out not very hard at all. Let’s start with that task; turns out that because Edge is built atop Chromium it’s actually pretty similar to how Google Chrome looks. The key is the menu you find on the “•••” button:
Lots and lots of options on this menu, but what you want is Help and feedback > About Microsoft Edge.
This actually takes you to a page that’s part of Settings:
The information you want is on the right side. Here’s a closer look:
If there was a newer version available, there would be an “update” button immediately adjacent to the version information. For now, apparently version 83.0.478.54 is the latest. Nice.
While you’re on the Settings screen, there are two additional settings you want to review.
First up, click on “System” on the left side. This is important:
You definitely want to use hardware acceleration, but that question of background apps, that’s a bit more tricky. If you visit a site in Edge and it launches a background program, do you want that program to continue running even if you quit the browser? I changed this particular one to “disable” but you might try both ways and see if you have any issues.
The other setting is the newly rewritten privacy area. Click on “Privacy and services” and you’ll see immediately that it’s something you should consider:
I veer between balanced and strict, but the important thing is that you can use this to choose the setting you’re most comfortable with in your own Web browser. There are quite a few other settings to consider if you scroll down a bit too, but that’s one of the most important.
And that’s it. Now you know how to check for version ID in Microsoft Edge, how to update your browser, and a few key setting options to minimize its impact on the rest of your computing tasks.
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Microsoft Windows for quite a while. Please check out my extensive Windows 10 Help area for lots more tutorials, tips and tricks while you’re here. Thanks!