Get Microsoft's Edge Browser for Windows 7 and 8


Download and install the Developer or Canary version of Edge, Microsoft's new Chromium based browser.

Microsoft will be releasing versions of the Edge browser for Windows 7, 8, Mac and Linux in the coming months. If you want to test Edge now or you want to run a newer version of Microsoft's browser because of the zero day vulnerability discovered in Internet Explorer, you can download the Developer or Canary builds now.

Developer and Canary builds are versions of Edge that are still in development and support 64 bit devices.
Development builds are updated weekly with new improvements and are tested by the Microsoft Edge team and are usually more stable than Canary. Canary builds are updated almost daily. 

I've been running the Developer build on Windows 8.1 with no issues, though there are reports that Netflix won't work in these builds. It's significantly faster than Internet Explorer, though that's to be expected since it was built on Chromium.
Microsoft has kept some functions and features from Chrome and added some of their own. You can find out how Edge differs from Chrome here.

You can use Chrome extensions in Edge, there's a how-to here:
How to Install Chrome Extensions in Microsoft Edge

Both Developer and Canary download an installer that when run, downloads and installs the rest of the program. Both have the Edge logo with a green Dev banner over it in the taskbar.
The download links aren't on the official Microsoft Edge website, they can be downloaded here (the links start the download):

Windows 10 Microsoft Edge Installer Also Works on Windows 7

(first seen at MSPoweruser)

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Is this some kind of signal that MS is going to extend the lifespan of Windows 7 or is it because if it works on 8.1 it will work on 7?

Things seem very murky right now about Windows 7.
Microsoft has stated that they are considering paid support for Windows 7 past the end of life date, but I haven't found anything solid or recent enough that I would say yes or no.
It's likely from what little Microsoft has said that they would limit paid support to Enterprise versions of Windows 7.

I think they are offering Edge for Windows 7 and 8.1 because they would prefer people run the newest iteration of Microsoft's browser, from a security standpoint it makes sense.

I tried to install the developer version but got an error about some parameters that I don't meet.

rhiannon, I'm mostly a Firefox user but tried Edge early on in Windows10 and was never captivated by it. I know it's been improved since then, but is there anything in particular you like about Edge?

I'm a Firefox user since they were a twinkle in Mozilla's eye years and years ago. I use other browsers but Firefox is my day in, day out get stuff done browser.

Internet Explorer is based on the Trident engine, earlier versions of Edge are based on the EdgeHTML engine. It was developed by Microsoft for Edge. It's mostlyis Trident with updated code. The new version of Edge is based on Chromium, which is the engine that Google Chrome is based on, as well as Opera and Vivaldi.
The new version of Edge is basically Chrome with some things added and some removed. It performs much like Chrome.

There isn't anything particular about the new version of Edge that appeals to me other than it's much faster than Internet Explorer and previous versions of Edge. I use few Microsoft services so the features that integrate into that ecosystem aren't an attraction. I like the use of Material Design in Edge. There are some extensions that I like and use that are available for Edge. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If yanyone wants Internet Explorer 11, it's included in Windows 10 by default. Directions on how to access it are here.
I'm including it because I've been asked more than once why Internet Explorer was replaced by Edge because someone wants IE11 back. It's still there.


Yeah, I searched for, and found IE where they hid it after moving to Win10 years ago. The only feature I initially liked in Edge was you can create a Start Menu tile from a webpage. On the other hand, I'll frequently drag a URL from the address bar to my Desktop to create a temporary shortcut using the other browsers, but weirdly, Edge won't let you do that.¯\_(ツ)_/¯