There is no denying that Chromium-based Microsoft Edge is an excellent browser and better than Google Chrome in many ways. Microsoft is slowly bringing back the best features of legacy Edge, and the company has made many changes to Chromium to improve touch support for Windows devices.
However, Microsoft Edge still doesn’t offer the smooth touchscreen experiences first released in legacy or UWP Edge. With the launch of Chromium Edge, Microsoft has removed the touch capabilities previously found in Windows 10’s default browser or Internet Explorer’s successor.
Our reader Cabover Pete, which tracks the development of Microsoft Edge tablets, shared a long list of browser issues on touch PCs. For example, users have reported that long-pressing horizontal and vertical tabs often causes a stuck long-press square to appear.
In addition, the toolbar also shows a similar problem with touch input. Users cannot drag tabs from one tabbed window to another with touch. Scrolling favorites/collection pages with touch often leads to unintentional movements. The touch keyboard retracts as you type, and tapping the address bar often resets the window size.
And the list goes on… Reports suggest that the text selection appears to be unreliable and not up to Windows 11 standards.
The fundamental problem with the Microsoft Edge touch experience is that the browser does not respond correctly to touch input on tabs, the toolbar, the address bar, and PDFs.
Overall, Microsoft will need to address these issues and improve Edge’s touch input functionality.
However, Microsoft is not actively working on tablet improvements to the web browser.
Users claimed that the company had removed forum threads on such issues, with one Edge user noting: The Edge team has removed highly rated Tablet and PDF feedback threads. They really sabotage Edge on Windows tablets.
Microsoft Edge engineer responded to the allegation, adding, “That [forum threads critical of Microsoft Edge] should not be removed as we are still actively reviewing and rolling out touch fixes.”
More unwanted features no one asked for
Over the weekend, Microsoft Edge was quietly updated with a new feature no one was asking for: Crypto Wallet.
Microsoft is adding a wallet and crypto wallet feature to the browser so you can send and receive cryptocurrency and NFTs. It is only available to selected users in Edge Canary and Dev Channel. Microsoft says users will have full control of the funds as this is a “non-custodial wallet”.
This is one of the unwanted features added to the browser in the last few updates and there is no sign of slowing down.
