Edge 86 lets you make the new tab page yours with custom pics

ARM devices are getting a little bit of Read Aloud love, too.

What you need to know

• The latest weekly build is now rolling out for the Microsoft Edge Dev channel.
• This week, the update is rather large as the first Edge 86 build.
• The update is rolling out now as version 86.0.587.0.

Microsoft Edge Insiders on the Dev channel have a whole lot of new features to check out today. The latest weekly build is now rolling out to Insiders, and it's the first big update to Edge version 86.

One of the biggest user-facing changes in this build is the ability to use custom backgrounds for the new tab page. There's also newly added support for using Read Aloud with PDFs on ARM devices like the Surface Pro X. Collections are getting a little love too, allowing you to add items to them from InPrivate windows.

There's a whole lot more here, of course, including the usual mass of bug fixes and performance improvements. Here's a full look at what's new.

• Re-enabled support for searching in the sidebar in PDFs now that the functionality has been fixed.
• Added the ability to use a custom image as the new tab page background.
• Added the ability to add items to Collections from InPrivate windows.
• Added a toggle to the InPrivate new tab page to always use Strict Tracking Prevention in InPrivate.
• Added support for Read Aloud on PDFs on ARM devices.
• Added dark theme to the Pinning Wizard.
• Added a button to delete certain address bar suggestions.
• Added the ability to re-order extension buttons that are in the … menu via the keyboard.
• Added a management policy for Enterprise Mode Site List Manager Allowed, which controls whether or not users can access the Enterprise Mode Site List themselves. Note that administrative templates will be updated later for all new policies.
• Added a management policy for New Tab Page Allowed Background Types to configure which types of images are allowed on new tabs.
• Added a management policy to Force Sync.
• Enabled support for the Chromium User Agent Client Hints Enabled management policy.
• Enabled support for the Chromium Default Search Provider Context Menu Access Allowed management policy.
• Re-enabled support for the Chromium management policy to Enable SHA-1 For Local Anchors.
• Finished rolling out Picture Dictionary to all Canary and Dev users.
• Fixed an issue where certain key combinations like ctrl+f or ctrl+- crash the browser.
• Fixed a crash on launch on Mac.
• Fixed an issue where new tabs sometimes crash as soon as they're opened or try to navigate.
• Fixed an issue where session restore doesn't work, causing Edge to fail to restore tabs when recovering from a crash, using continuous browsing, restarting to apply an update, etc.
• Fixed an issue where clicking Site Information button sometimes crashes the tab.
• Fixed an issue where adding text to a Collection via the right-click menu crashes the tab.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where using the touchbar when certain sites like Netflix are playing video crashes the tab.
• Fixed a crash when playing videos.
• Fixed an issue where signing into the browser sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where certain media formats like FLAC or WEBM don't work, causing audio and video on certain sites like Coursera to fail.
• Fixed an issue where entering drawing mode on a PDF causes Read Aloud not to work on other tabs.
• Fixed a hang on shutdown on ARM.
• Fixed an issue where navigating from an IE mode site to a non-IE mode site sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where exporting IE mode diagnostic info from edge://compat sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to save an edited PDF that was opened read-only fails.
• Fixed an issue where clearing browsing data fails on Mac.
• Fixed an issue where sharing web content such as embedded Youtube videos sometimes fails.
• Fixed an issue where the Heavy Ad Intervention feature from Chromium (if enabled via a flag) doesn't work.
• Improved the reliability of sync for work and school accounts.
• Fixed an issue when cookies are added to the website permissions settings page's Allow list and the option to delete cookies when the browser is closed is enabled. Now, cookies added to the allow list aren't removed, and cookies expected to be removed are.
• Fixed an issue where options to change the browser's theme and zoom are missing from Settings.
• Fixed an issue where the website's protocol (http://, https://, etc.) is hidden in the address bar and only appears when interacting with it. Note that this behavior can be restored via a flag if desired.
• Fixed an issue where certain management policies like those for SmartScreen weren't being applies to devices being managed through Intune or another MDM solution. Note that domain joined devices weren't affected.
• Fixed an issue where hovering over UI such as the Favorites Bar shows corruption in the text.
• Fixed an issue where the favicon of favorites on the Favorites Bar sometimes disappears.
• Fixed an issue where switching tabs via the fullscreen Shy UI prevents using the touchscreen on Shy UI until fullscreen is exited.
• Fixed an issue where sites sometimes don't appear in the Back/Forward list.
• Fixed an issue where extensions sometimes don't appear on the Extensions management page.
• Fixed an issue where Read Aloud sometimes reads too slow.
• Fixed an issue where clearing browsing data sometimes opens a new window.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to use a pen or stylus to interact with webpages fails when the interaction is over an iframe, which commonly host videos and ads.
• Fixed an issue where old versions of Edge sometimes aren't deleted after Edge is updated.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where the … menu sometimes doesn't work when used from Shy UI.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where the browser sometimes reports the wrong or an unknown channel.
• Fixed an issue where duplicate tooltips sometimes appear when hovering over UI.
• Fixed an issue where the new tab page for Guest mode windows is in light theme even when the browser is in dark theme.
• Fixed an issue where the popup that offers translation sometimes appears on the new tab page.
• Fixed an issue where some parts of the Surf game aren't localized properly.
• Fixed an issue where dragging an address from the address bar into a Collection doesn't add the website to the Collection. Improved how products are added to a Collection from certain shopping websites like Ebay.
• Improved messaging on the Downloads shelf when deleting a downloaded file fails.
• Improved Autofill to reduce the number of websites where passwords are suggested on non-password fields like payment card CVVs.
• Improved scrolling behavior when using Line Focus in Immersive Reader.
• Removed the ability to pin a site to the Taskbar from within an Application Guard window since the functionality is broken.

This is the first major push of Edge version 86, which explains why there are so many new features and fixes to check out. As Microsoft iterates on Edge 86, it's likely we'll see fewer major changes as it grows closer to release. For more on this build, you can check out Microsoft's full release notes.

In the meantime, Edge Insiders using the Dev channel can pick up this build by updating through the settings menu. If you have yet to try the Edge Insider builds, you can download the Canary, Dev, and Beta releases from the Edge Insider site. The release version is also available from the official Microsoft Edge site.