Took Microsoft a bit, but two handy features are now enabled on its browser. The latest version of Edge Canary enables secure DNS by default, while adding a flag for smooth scrolling of PDF files that it opens.
The DNS over HTTPS (DoH) setting has been talked about before.
It basically allows users the choice of four custom DNS service providers if they don’t want to use the default offering. This setting has been added in this week, as Microsoft held out adding this feature after Google implemented it in Chrome 84 back in May.
Just like Chrome, Microsoft provides four custom DNS providers to choose from — Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), Google (Public DNS), Quad9 (9.9.9.9), and CleanBrowsing (Family Filter).
This change to secure DNS as a default option helps amplify the privacy and security of Edge, safeguarding users from potential man-in-the-middle attacks that could read DNS queries that are sent in an unencrypted fashion.
Should not be long before it lands on other channels along with the main version of Edge, seeing as this change is not a major one.
Another change that is not too big is smooth scrolling for PDFs.
Microsoft had confirmed that it was working on this feature back in June. And it can now be enabled from edge://flags under the #edge-smooth-scrolling-enabled-pdf flag.
This is, of course, one of the features that was made available on Legacy Edge originally, and Microsoft promised to bring it to the Chromium version of the web browser shortly after its debut. With the vintage flavor of Edge on its way out, this is another welcome addition for the current browser.
