Microsoft Edge now uses Windows accelerated app launches, which Microsoft says improve launch speeds by 15% for most Windows users and up to 33% during heavy multitasking. The feature has already reached Microsoft Edge version 150 and later, reducing the work Windows performs when a user opens the browser while it is already running. Microsoft says Edge is the first browser to support the Windows capability.
Support covers Windows 11 versions 25H2, 26H2 and 26H1, with the October 2026 non-security update, KB5127936, or a subsequent update required. Users can benefit when opening Edge through the Start menu or Taskbar, as well as when following supported links for which Edge is the default browser. Opening PDF files through the capability remains something Microsoft says it is working on.
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The change addresses a situation in which Edge is already active, either with a window visible or as a background process through a feature such as Startup Boost. Previously, launching Edge from the taskbar or clicking a link required Windows to create a separate intermediary process to check whether the browser was running. If that process found an existing browser session, it passed the request along to it.
With the new approach, an Edge process registers with Windows when it starts, and Windows validates that registration. On a subsequent launch, Windows uses the registration to contact the active Edge process directly. Microsoft says the previous lookup could cause noticeable delays during multitasking, even if it was barely apparent on a freshly started PC.
The browser change follows other Windows performance work, including a Photos update that began reaching Windows Insiders earlier this month. For that update, Microsoft claimed a 25% improvement in Editor launch speed and image opening gains of up to 30% in the redesigned Viewer. Unlike that initial Insider rollout, accelerated app launches have already rolled out to the supported Edge versions.
Microsoft is also contributing the work to Chromium, the open-source project underlying Edge, so other browsers built on it could eventually use accelerated launches on Windows. Developers of other Windows applications can pursue support through the accelerated-launch registration capability.
