Microsoft Edge Now Improves Performance by Compressing Disk Cache

Microsoft says Microsoft Edge users will notice improved performance and a smaller disk footprint because the web browser now automatically compresses disk caches.

“Beginning with Microsoft Edge 102 on Windows, Microsoft Edge automatically compresses disk caches on devices that meet eligibility checks, to ensure the compression will be beneficial without degrading performance,” the Microsoft Edge Team said Wednesday.

“This ensures compression of these caches largely improves performance and overall user experience.”

As the company explained, the larger the disk cache a web browser uses, the likelier it is that cached web resources can be accessed quicker, making it faster to load web pages.

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However, increasing the disk cache will often lead to systems with low disk space running out of space, which browser vendors also have to consider.

“One way we can maximize cache usage while minimizing disk usage is by leveraging compression to save disk space for the cached content,” Microsoft added.

“Since the contents in these cache(s) are often highly compressible, compression results in increasing the likelihood that the requested resource can be fetched from the disk.”

More performance and security improvements

Microsoft further improved its Chromium-based web browser’s overall responsiveness and performance earlier this year after tweaking the sleeping tabs feature.

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The feature significantly lowered Edge’s memory and CPU requirements leading to increased browser performance and battery life.

Based on performance tests across roughly 13,000 devices, Microsoft said that sleeping tabs reduce memory usage by 32% on average and, in most cases, it can lead to approximately 37% lower CPU usage.

Sleeping tabs started rolling out in Edge version Beta 88 in December 2020 to drastically reduce memory and CPU resource usage, only four months after its initial unveil, in September 2020, as an experimental feature.

Redmond is also improving the browser’s security, adding a new feature to mitigate future in-the-wild exploitation of unknown zero-day vulnerabilities and Super Duper Secure Mode (a new feature that brings security upgrades without significant performance losses).