Microsoft to remove Edge Legacy desktop app with April’s Windows 10 Tuesday release

Microsoft in August last year had announced ending the support for the legacy desktop app.

Microsoft Edge (Microsoft)

Microsoft is going to replace its Edge Legacy app with the new Edge with April's Windows 10 Update Tuesday update. It will also not offer security updates to the Edge Legacy desktop application after March 9, 2021. The company in August last year had announced ending the support for the legacy desktop app.

Microsoft will be offering the new Edge as part of its Windows 10 cumulative monthly security update, scheduled to roll out on April 13, 2021. Once the user installs the update, the outdated Edge legacy desktop app will be swapped by the latest Edge browser.

According to a Neowin report, the update will completely remove the legacy version of the Edge browser from the OS. If the new Edge is already installed, it won't re-install the browser and just remove the older version.

“The new Microsoft Edge offers built-in security and our best interoperability with the Microsoft security ecosystem, all while being more secure than Chrome for businesses on Windows 10,” said Microsoft in the post.

The change will impact users with Windows 10 version 20H2, 2004, 1909, 1903, 1809 and 1803.

Microsoft's new announcement is likely aimed at pushing the Chromium-based Edge browser to its users. Introduced in January last year, the new Edge browser brought a revamped interface, new set of features, and support for Chrome extensions.

One of the recent updates introduced a new feature called “Sleeping Tabs.” As the name suggests, it puts tabs (not opened in a while) into an inactive state. With sleeping tabs, other apps that require those limited resources can make use of the freed-up memory and a less taxed CPU.