“What is Edge? Is it a virus? It just appeared on my computer!”

I am asked that question about a dozen times a week. Microsoft has been trying to make a web browser (Internet Explorer) ever since Windows 95 (yes … over 25 years now). They tried and tried with Internet Explorer over the years, but other browsers were always better (like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and a dozen more).

The only way Microsoft was able to come up with a decent browser was to copy someone else’s. Yes, they literally copied Google’s Chrome Browser. It’s based on the open source Chromium browser which has been around for a while.

There are literally over 200 Chromium based browsers out there today. Edge and Chrome are only two of them, but they are the most popular. I’ve used them side by side and in my opinion, Chrome is faster, even though it uses more RAM. Edge prefers to use BING as a search engine. We have found that BING prefers advertisements over search results. What might show up on the top of a Google search may be on page two of BING results. Your mileage may vary, but a full page of ads doesn’t make me feel good about a web search.

Edge is not a virus, but just another web browser. It’s always a good idea to have a couple different internet browsers available just in case something happens to one of them.

Keep in mind, the ‘blue wave’ version of Edge will be remaining on Windows 10 computers. The little ‘BLUE E’ version will disappear in the next few months. The older Edge browser will be removed leaving you with only one, plus any other browsers you might have installed. The old INTERNET EXPLORER will also disappear later too. It will be removed by one of Microsoft’s future updates.