Why isn't Edge considered a Store App?
Wasen't one of the big reasons IE lost out to FF/Chrome because it could only update through Windows Update/walled behind new versions of Windows? I thought the point of the MS Store was to let Apps update independently from the OS so Edge wouldn't fall behind FF/Chrome.
While I like Edge and use it as a secondary browser on both my phone (even though it uses same engine as Chrome) and PC, it seems like Microsoft made a huge mistake by not making Edge updateable through the Store. That means that if I'm on 1709 for stability reasons (for now), I cannot update Edge without also updating to 1803. Why didn't Microsoft simply make Edge a Store App so it could update independently like Groove etc?
Posted Jul 1, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC
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Because a huge part of Edge is part of the system and can be used by other apps. Updating for example the rendering engine or the Javascript engine could break third party apps. It's still a plan (afaik) to make it a Store app partly, so they could update some functions.
That's a problem that has been long since solved on Android, where the web rendering engine is its own app and can be independently updated.
But I bet they haven't solved that on ChromeOS. The level of Edge integration with Windows is probably closer to the ChromeOS model than Android.
Looking up ChromeOS, it looks like Chrome is directly used to handle a ton of operating system-level functionality? Edge definitely isn't anywhere near that. I think that the closest it comes is providing a web viewer for apps that request it, which is pretty much exactly the same as Android (though Android lets you access the web view from a seperate app if you want to keep Chrome disabled).
microsoft: "yeah! Its integration is absolutely critical to the operating system and you can't file another anti-trust case until edge's market share climbs out of the toilet so deal with it."
Anyway, I don't think the fact that it's not on the store is really a barrier to faster edge updates - windows update can do that just as well if MS wanted to push feature updates for it faster. IE just fell behind due to inept management.