Microsoft's first build of Armium Edge now lurks in Canary channel – go have a play if you dare

The first official build of Microsoft's Chromium Edge browser has arrived a week after the Arm-based Surface Pro X began shipping to eager fans.

But while the Surface Pro X is supposedly the finished article, Microsoft's new Edge-for-Arm still has a way to go before earning the coveted "General Availability" tag. macOS and Windows versions of Chromium Edge are due to be shipped on 15 January 2020, a day after Windows 7 support gets the chop.

We're pleased to announce that Microsoft Edge for ARM is now available in the Canary channel! Canary is now built natively for the ARM64 architecture that powers some Windows 10 devices, including the new Surface Pro X. It will soon come to the Dev and Beta channels as well. pic.twitter.com/cKg1H3Utfd

— Microsoft Edge Dev (@MSEdgeDev) November 13, 2019

The Edge gang broke the news the week after Microsoft's Ignite event and dropped the Arm build into the Canary channel for Edge testers. The Canary channel is very much at the bleeding edge of development, with users expecting daily builds of varying quality. Updates in the Dev channel are roughly weekly, and should be a bit more stable, with the Beta channel being nearasdammit done.

Kyle Pflug, senior PM for Edge, tweeted that the Dev version should follow relatively quickly – before admitting that the long-awaited build had scrolling bugs.

The fact that it is preview code is of scant comfort to those who have spanked considerable cash on the Pro X, and would have been forgiven for expecting to find a little more in the way of out-of-the-box Arm support from the software giant.

As it stands, unless a customer has sufficient knowledge and courage to find and install Chromium Edge, the native version is unlikely to be pushed to users until next year's Windows 10 rolls around.

The Windows 10 November 2019 Update is here

Shortly before emitting Edge for Arm, Microsoft also made the Windows 10 November 2019 Update (19H2) available to users, as expected.

In marked contrast to what happened last year, the launch has been muted. Users who want the jumped-up cumulative update and have hardware that Microsoft reckons can handle the code, can find it with a click of Check for updates in Windows Update.

A swift Download and install now should do the trick, followed by a restart (which can be delayed by up to 35 days).

For administrators, the new build (aka 1909 or 19H2) can be deployed through tools such as Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

The release is thankfully light on content, with the ability to create calendar events directly in the Taskbar flyout, notification tweaks and OneDrive content turning up in the File Explorer search box. The ability to use voice commands to wake up third-party digital assistants from the Lock screen has also made an appearance, marking the end of Microsoft's consumer Cortana adventure as originally envisaged.

The unloved assistant will doubtless be much happier in its new home in Office 365 after the demise of Windows Mobile.

The release comes as Windows 10 1803 (aka the April 2018 Update) reaches the end of the road for Home and Pro editions. Many users on that version (or earlier) will have already seen Windows attempt to kick off an update as the number of PCs using the older OS dwindled. AdDuplex's figures for October showed just 13.6 per cent of customers still running 1803, compared to 56.6 per cent for the May 2019 Update. ®