Microsoft Build 2022 Conference Introduction features recent new and upcoming content for Microsoft Edge.
The latest developments in WebView2
First, WebUI 2/UWP will soon be fully available. WebView2 will be universally available for WinUI 2/UWP in the next few months, and will be ready whether you are extending a native application with Web functionality or building a full-page Web UI. NET MAUI becomes generally available, WebView2 will also be ready for Web content requirements. Microsoft also intends to bring WebView2 to additional platforms in the future, including Xbox and Hololens.
Migrating to Microsoft Edge and WebView2 also results in better performance, in a trial conducted by the Cerner Corporation, using Microsoft Edge WebView2 reduced rendering time by 85%, CPU usage by 33%, and memory usage by 32% compared to running their solution with Internet Explorer.
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)
With the evolution of the modern Web and a wealth of new Web standards, PWAs now have access to some features that were previously only possible in the context of native applications.Microsoft Edge has provided a number of updates to PWAs to make them more robust on the Windows desktop. These updates include enabling new APIs for protocol processing by default and improving notifications so that they are marked as coming from the application itself, rather than from the Microsoft Edge browser.
In addition, users will have an easier way to manage PWAs. Users can find PWA next to their native apps in the Microsoft Store, and Microsoft Edge also has a new App Center experience and added cross-device app syncing for a better user experience.
Finally, Microsoft is improving the developer experience for PWAs by partnering with PWABuilder. The improved PWABuilder site includes a new PWA Starter project and a new VSCode extension: PWA Studio, which make the entire process of creating a PWA and publishing it to the Microsoft Store smoother for developers.
DevTools improvements for browsers
The DevTools Developer Toolbar for the Edge browser has been simplified to provide more customization and learning options. The new simplified UI introduces a new compact and customizable active toolbar. This active bar uses unique tool icons to simplify navigation, and developers can customize it using any of the 30+ tools to personalize the toolbar.
The simplified UI will also introduce additional features, including support for a tooltip overlay that provides specific information about a panel simply by hovering over it. The new DevTools UI can be tried out through the "Focus Mode" experiment, which is currently available in all DevTools channels.
In addition, Edge has introduced a new set of powerful tools that simplify memory and performance investigation in DevTools and support for using source mapping from Azure Artifacts servers in production for secure debugging.
More about Microsoft Edge can be found at the Microsoft Blog for a closer look.