Microsoft's Chromium browser adds some nifty business features

At its virtual Build 2020 developers conference, Microsoft announced a number of new business related features and other improvements coming to Chromium Edge.

Microsoft Edge recently surpassed Mozilla Firefox to become the second most popular desktop browser after Google Chrome and the software giant has yet to roll out its Chromium-based browser as a Windows update.

The company also revealed that its Edge team has made “over 3,000 commits” to the Chromium open source project since December of last year. These improvements were to a number of different areas including accessibility, inking, scrolling and localization and impact all Chromium browsers on Windows as well as frameworks such as Electron.

Microsoft Edge update wants to end web spam forever
Microsoft open-sources its coronavirus threat intelligence
These are the best browsers of 2020

New business features

Microsoft has positioned Chromium Edge as the browser for business which is why the company has announced several new features designed to help IT managers and information workers.

The first of which is syncing and installed extensions in Edge will be able to sync across multiple devices. The company has created a new policy that allows IT professionals to manage the types of data that sync for their users such as turning off the ability to sync passwords.

Next up is Automatic Profile Switching and this feature will detect if a link a user is trying to open needs their work credentials and will then switch to their work profile, if they're already logged in. This could be quite useful for those working from home as it will allow them to set a default profile for any link based on whether it is work related or personal.

Edge also now supports Windows Information Protection which helps protect content in a web environment where users share and distribute content frequently. This feature separates a user's personal and corporate data, adds extra protection for line-of-business apps and provides audit reporting for compliance purposes.

Chromium Edge is gaining users at a steady pace and these new business features will likely convince some people to move away from Google Chrome, especially if they are already using Microsoft's apps and services at their organizations.