Microsoft tackles poor Edge browser user interface performance by replacing React UI with WebUI 2.0

Microsoft has created a more responsive Edge web browser by replacing the React user interface (UI) with WebUI 2.0 to improve performance. MS programmers analyzed Edge browser performance on users’ PCs, then tackled key UI modularity and Javascript issues.

Web browsers had very snappy response and performance many years ago. One of the reasons is that user interfaces were hardcoded and ran as fast, compiled machine code. Unfortunately, Edge browser previously used the React library created by Facebook (now Meta) for rendering the user interface. The interpreted code resulted in poor responsiveness due to the use of shared modules and performance-sapping Javascript, especially on low-memory, slower PCs.

Microsoft reengineered Edge with WebUI 2.0 to tackle these causes and states that the UI is now 76% faster on low-RAM or HDD PCs, and 42% faster for general Edge users, and 40% faster when accessing the favorites menu. WebUI 2.0 uses less Javascript, smaller code bundles, and performance-tuned web components to achieve these gains. Readers can also counter slow software with a new, fast PC (like this one on Amazon) or use alternative, lightweight browsers on old PCs.

Edge version 124 is the first version to benefit, and future versions will become more responsive as additional UI elements are ported to WebUI 2.0. Why a browser user interface must use curved tabs that slow down performance and waste energy remains unanswered.