Microsoft has acted quickly to fix an issue in its new Chromium Microsoft Edge browser. Users started complaining about the browser crashing when Google was set as the default search. These crashes would occur when the user was inputting into the address bar.
There was no waiting until Patch Tuesday for this fix. Instead, Microsoft got to work and rolled out a fix hours after reports started gathering pace. Clearly, Chromium Microsoft Edge is now an important part of Windows 10.
Microsoft knows most people use Google as a default search. In other words, the company needed to squash this bug fast because it could have affected most Edge users. The company is increasingly trying to push Edge as an alternative to Google's Chrome, especially in enterprise. If this bug was left it could have reduced confidence in the browser.
Interestingly, the bug affected Microsoft Edge on Windows and Mac.
Thanks for everyone's patience while we investigated! We believe this to be resolved now. We encourage you to revert your browser settings that you may have changed, and let us know if you are still experiencing any crashes typing into the address bar. https://t.co/Icx2qR3UHM
— Microsoft Edge Dev (@MSEdgeDev) July 31, 2020
Blame Game
Of course, there was an easy way for users to avoid the bug while waiting for Microsoft's fix… remove Google as the default search engine.
The bug led to some conspiracies with users saying Google could be behind the problem to push people to Chrome. Others suggested Microsoft was behind the issue, hoping users would switch to Bing for searches.
More likely, this was a good old-fashioned bug. That said, Microsoft has not said what was causing the crashes. While the company was investigating, it said users should disable Search Suggestions in edge://settings/search.
After a few hours, the company returned with the fix:
“We believe this to be resolved now. We encourage you to revert your browser settings that you may have changed, and let us know if you are still experiencing any crashes typing into the address bar,” Microsoft said in a tweet.
